China, late Neolithic period, c. 3300-2200 BC. The thick-walled cong with rounded sides and a cylindrical interior, each corner carved with a stylized human and animal mask design. The eyes and noses as well as the raised bands above the human mask and recesses in between are finely incised with line and scroll designs. The faces are divided with a gently recessed vertical band to the center of each side. The stone of a mottled brown and olive green color with russet inclusions and areas of white calcification.

Provenance: D Milano, Paris, France. Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above in 2002 (invoice not available). Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna, Italy. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother's business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than 60 years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.
Condition: Good condition commensurate with age, with expected ancient wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, smoothened losses to edges, tiny nicks, small chips, few natural fissures.

Weight: 567.7 g
Dimensions: Diameter 10.6 cm

Literature comparison:
Compare a similar jade cong, Liangzhu culture, also carved with two registers of stylized human and animal masks excavated in 1984 from Fuquanshan in Qingpu County, Shanghai, now in the Shanghai Administrative Committee of Culture Heritage, illustrated in Liangzhu wenhua yuqi, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 17, pl. 19. See another related example of a jade cong, included in the Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition: Selected Treasures of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 1990, no. 195. For several other examples of two-tiered cong, see F. Salviati, 4000 Years of Chinese Archaic Jades, Edition Zacke, Vienna 2017, nos. 51, 53, and 54.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie's New York, 25 March 2022, lot 704
Price: USD 94,500 or approx. EUR 94,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A large mottled black and brown jade cong, Neolithic period, 3rd millenium BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of carving, mask motif, and dark mottled color of the stone. Note the closely related size (11.1 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie's New York, 19 March 2015, lot 470
Price: USD 60,000 or approx. EUR 72,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A mottled olive-green, russet-brown and cream-colored opaque jade cong, China, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, 3rd millennium BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related two-tiered form, mask motif, and mottled olive-green and russet-brown color of the jade with similar opaque cream-white calcification. Note the smaller size (6.5 cm).