The jade cong-ritual tube represents a traditional shape that had its artistic apogee during the Late Neolithic period, in particular in association with the Liangzhu Culture of ca. 3500-2100 B.C. In type, these cong may be compared to plain examples excavated from the late Shang tomb of Fu Hao at Anyang, Henan, Yinxu Fu Hao mu, Beijing, n.d., pl. 81:3, 82:4. Like the present lot, one of these examples is green with mottling of brown and black. Western Zhou jade cong are imperfectly known through archaeological excavation. It is well known that jade cong are still represented in the ritual repertoire of jades during the Warring States period. At that point when cong appear they are almost always decorated on their exterior surfaces with Warring States type scroll or related decor, see Zhongguo meishu quanji: Yuqi, vol. 9, Beijing, 1986, pl. 115

Cong of this type are also represented in various public and private collections, including the Winthrop Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Sonnenschein Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades, Chicago, 1952, pl. C:2 with two other examples, C:2 being the most similar