Expert's note: The present piece, carved with nine tiers of face masks, is exceptionally tall for a Liangzhu jade cong, and would have undoubtedly been extremely time-consuming to make due to the consumption of such a large piece of material. Each tier is delicately rendered at the four corners with circles displaying the eyes, a raised rib underneath denoting the nose and two slimmer parallel bands above indicating the crown. Such large pieces are very rare and examples with nine tiers are particularly uncommon.

China, c. 3300-2200 BC or later. Well carved, of square cross section surrounding a cylindrically hollowed tube to the center with rounded square corners, and tapering slightly toward the base. The sides are divided into nine registers with a stylized mask at each of the four corners, comprising two long bars above a shorter bar and flanked by two circles for eyes, all embellished with meticulously incised lines. The opaque stone of a beige color with brown inclusions and dark gray veins and patches.

Provenance: Collection of Lee Kong Chian, Singapore, thence by descent to his nephew Oey Ek His. Collection of Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above in the 1990s (by repute). Lee Kong Chian (1893-1967) was a prominent Chinese Singaporean businessman and philanthropist based in Malaya and Singapore between the 1930s and the 1960s. He was the founder of the Lee Foundation and one of the richest men in Southeast Asia in the 1950s and 1960s. 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: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Few nicks, minor losses—mostly along the edges, traces of weathering and erosion, all as expected. The stone with natural inclusions and fissures.

Weight: 9,935 g
Dimensions: Height 32.3 cm

Similar carvings can be found in the lavishly adorned tombs of ancient China, dating back to the late fourth and third millennia BC, offering intriguing insights into the cultural significance of jade objects as possible prestigious burial gifts or important property of the deceased. The immense value placed on these jade items continued into the modern period with collectors from scholars to the emperor himself keeping such jades as decorative artifacts, using them as objects of contemplation, and even fitting them out with copper liners for use as flower vases.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related jade cong unearthed from M20 Fanshan tomb site of Liangzhu, in the Museum of the Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nanyue King.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie's New York, 21 March 2014, lot 2000
Price: USD 245,000 or approx. EUR 295,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An olive-green and brown jade cong, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, circa 2500 BC
Expert remark: Compare the related form with similarly tapered sides. Note the size (21.3 cm).