Handling Artifacts at the Xiling Seal Art Society

The annual spring auction of the Xiling Seal Art Society will swing the hammer tomorrow. Today the Huanglong Hotel and the Zhejiang World Trade Junlan Hotel opened their preview rooms.

This year’s offerings range from Chinese painting and calligraphy to letters and manuscripts of famous figures, rare books and rubbings, seal stones, inkstones from every dynasty, scholarly studio objects, devotional sculpture, ancient Chinese coins, oil paintings and sculpture, cartoons by noted artists, jade pieces, and vintage Chinese liquors. The catalog is thick, yet in my amateur eyes true masterpieces are few.

The headline lots are Wu Dacheng’s treasured ancient jade cong¹ and the Western Zhou bronze Ying gui formerly held by Duan Fang², accompanied by Duan Fang’s original full-form rubbing. To spotlight them, the house created a special session titled “Bronze Monuments for the Ages · Important Ritual Bronzes and the Tribute Jade Cong from Wu Dacheng’s Collection.”

Between the two groups, I personally favor Duan Fang’s Ying gui and its rubbing scroll.

Bronzes encapsulate ancient metallurgy, pair objects with inscriptions and even with “photographs,” and therefore hold richer cultural value.

As collectibles or investments, jade cong offer less cultural depth. Liangzhu-era workmanship already reached a level we can hardly replicate. No matter which famous owner endorsed a later piece, value upside was limited because true connoisseurs care about the object itself, and investors about appreciation potential. Celebrity hype that inflates price simply overdraws the piece’s real worth.

In the ancient coin section of the preview I even saw shell currency. Setting aside whether shells could survive intact for two millennia, there’s also no way to prove they functioned as money. My guess is that these “relics” were made by drilling modern shells—a prop for fooling speculators.

In the vintage liquor area, Kweichow Moutai and Dong’e Ejiao drew the most attention, though Moutai clearly stole the show. Bottles from the 1950s through the 1990s were all lined up and priced accordingly.

These are impressions from a casual observer, not collecting advice.

驵琮 (zǎng cóng) — “The Zhou Rites · Artificers” records: “A jade cong of five cun serves the wife of the ancestral ruler as a balance. A seven-cun cong belongs to the Son of Heaven.” Zheng Xuan explained: “It is named after the cord that suspends it.” Zheng Sinong added: “Used as a weight for balances.” ↩
簋 (guǐ) — “A round vessel for millet,” according to the Shuowen Jiezi. The “Zhou Rites” note: “There are twelve ding and gui,” distinguishing ding with round exteriors and gui with round interiors. ↩

Published at: Jul 5, 2019 · Modified at: Nov 20, 2025