J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
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THREE NEOLITHIC JADE CONG FORM BEADS
Liangzhu Culture, circa 3300 – 2250 B.C.
a small cong of square cross section, drilled with a circular channel through the center and with two registers of square projecting panels across four corners, each carved across the angles with double bands of incised parallel lines above round ‘eyes’ and a raised narrow band for the ‘nose,’ separated by a recessed vertical band on each side, the cloudy cream colored jade with darker mottling; a miniature cong with raised narrow bands across the angles, the plain polished sides divided into two registers, the jade of milk white tone; and a corner segment of a cong carved in two registers with slightly raised panels across the angle carved with circular eyes within pointed oval surrounds above a narrow raised ‘nose’ band, the reverse plain and smoothly rounded, with a vertical channel drilled from both ends, the cream white jade with remains of encrusted earth.
Heights 1 1⁄8, 5⁄8, 1 7⁄8 inches (2.9, 1.6, 4.7 cm)
Three miniature jade congs unearthed at Yaoshan, Yuhang, Zhejiang province are illustrated in the catalogue of the special exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Beijing University by Qin and Fang (eds.), Quanli yu xinyang: Liangzhu yizhi qun kaogu tezhan (Power in Things: New Perspectives on Liangzhu), Beijing, 2015, p. 343, pl. III-2-7, where the authors suggest on p. 429 that miniature jade congs may have been used as ritual objects as well as decorative beads.
Another miniature jade cong is illustrated by Rawson, in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 140, no. 5:2, where the author also shows loc. cit., fig. 1, a line drawing from the excavation report on the Liangzhu site at Yaoshan, Yuhang, Zhejiang province with two cong form beads said to be fittings on the shaft of a ritual axe.
Compare also the miniature jade cong unearthed from the Liangzhu site at Huangtushan, Mocheng, Changshu, Jiangsu province, illustrated in Changshu bowuguan cang yu (Collected Jade of Changshu Museum), Beijing, 2001, no. 4.
新石器時代 良渚小玉琮三件 高 2.9, 1.6, 4.7 厘米
