I met Robert Tang (fig. 1) in London in 1990 at an opening gala organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum. I had just started my position as curator of ancient Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, the National Museums of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Robert Tang was already a highly-regarded Queen’s Counsel in Hong Kong. He had recently joined the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong’s most prestigious collectors’ society. In 2004, he left private practice to become a judge, eventually appointed to Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal in 2012, from which position he formally retired in 2018.
Robert Tang’s collecting life ran almost parallel to his professional life, reaching a peak in the late 1980s and 1990s, when he began to compete actively with collectors both at home and abroad. One of his most prized acquisitions is the late Eastern Zhou jade dancer formerly in the Arthur M. Sackler collections, New York, purchased for him by Giuseppe Eskenazi in 1994 at what was then a record-high price for an archaic Chinese jade at auction.1 In the course of our over thirty years of friendship that straddled America and Hong Kong, which culminated in the publication of his jade collection in 2015, I have come to appreciate what makes an admirable collector and a remarkable collection (fig. 2).
Throughout this period, Robert Tang not only collected ancient Chinese jades, he also acquired later Chinese jades (not included in the current sale), metalwork (including Eastern Zhou inlaid bronze vessels, Qidan and Tibetan gilt bronzes, Song ceramics, Chinese paintings and classical furniture. He highlighted ten of his favorite things from these areas of his collection in his essay for the 2015 catalogue.2 Pieces in his collection have been shown in exhibitions in Hong Kong, organized by the Min Chiu Society and other institutions e.g. the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong’s Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes (the Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1990), or Noble Riders from Pines and Deserts: The Artistic Legacy of the Qidan organized by the Art Museum (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004). Some have participated in American exhibitions such as Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration (National Gallery, 1991), Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1995); or are on long-term loan to museums in Kansas City (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), Denver (Denver Art Museum), and Washington, D.C. (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery). The majority, however, has been kept close to home.
In our conversations, Robert often chides himself that he collects impetuously, without discipline, unlike many other collectors. However, as Ming Wilson pointed out in her review of the 2015 catalogue, many major early 20th century British collectors — and I might add American collectors too — who collected a bit of everything, had left indelible legacies for subsequent generations. She further cautions: “When a collector searches for something specific, the antiques market often can, magically, produce the goods.”3 On the other hand, spontaneous collecting, often regarded as a weakness, reminds us that eminent collections usually come from the serendipitous meeting of a collector’s eye, judgement, knowledge, and opportunity.
Presented here, therefore, are the fruits of almost four decades of diligent looking, searching, bold decision-making, and uncompromising commitment of resources. 88 archaic jades from the collection dating from the Neolithic to Han periods are offered here, most of which have been carefully studied and discussed in the 2015 catalogue. A small number are subsequent acquisitions as opportunities presented themselves (lots 3792 and 3797). The later Chinese jades, many exceptional masterpieces, remain in Robert Tang’s collection.4
Although Robert Tang’s main sources have been local, he casts his eye far and wide, and is well-known among international auction houses and dealers such as Giuseppe Eskenazi and Robert Ellsworth. Some of his more important purchases, such as the large ornamental scrolled plaque (lot 3771; cat. no. 1), came from Hong Kong dealers. He hesitated at first, because of its condition. When I reminded him that it would be unrealistic to expect an over 5000-year old jade to have survived intact, he realized immediately that his concern was unwarranted. To date, this plaque has kept its place among a small number of large scrolled plaques associated with China’s northeast Neolithic “Hongshan” communities, and nothing remotely comparable has been available since.5
Companion pieces to this impressive scroll plaque include the cicada pendant from the venerable Myron Falk collection in New York (lot 3770; cat. no. 2a), and the haunting human face framed by thick curled hair (lot 3777; cat. no. 3a). Excavated parallels to these and other pieces in the collection (lots 3776, 3778 and 3780; cat. nos 3b-d) reveal that the jade-using communities that lived along China’s northeast coast encompassed a wide area that reached far inland into modern-day Inner Mongolia.6
The squared cylinder cong, an iconic ritual jade of the late Neolithic communities in southeast China commonly called the “Liangzhu”, is represented by an exceptional example (lot 3784; cat. no. 5).7 Its well-worn surface and warm amber-brown patina indicate a long history above ground, comparable to examples that have entered museums in the early decades of the twentieth century. The cong was collected by an American medical doctor who lived and worked in Hong Kong between 1949 and 1959, his admiration of Chinese culture so complete that he named his collection Rende Zhai. It was so treasured by him and his descendants that the original brocade box containing labels and annotations written in the doctor’s hand was also preserved.
Scholars of ancient jades believed that these Neolithic jades carried profound spiritual and earthly powers, although the precise meanings of these powers remain elusive. An unusual finial in the shape of a kneeling figure in this collection exemplifies the omnipotent power of jade centuries after their creation (lot 3790; cat. no. 9). Dating from the late second millennium BC, this finial appears to have been adapted from a corner of a cong that had survived as a fragment from centuries past. This practice of re-using damaged older jades epitomized the high value ancients placed on jade, driven perhaps by the belief that its power increased with time. The fragment was made for a Shang patron, showing a human figure kneeling with bent arms raised to the chest, hair centrally parted, and two mysterious cross circular symbols at the haunches. These distinctive features evoke connections with antiquity, echoing rare human images spanning the late Neolithic to the Bronze Age.8 Its closest parallels associate it with Lady Fu Hao, the Shang royal consort buried at Anyang. Similar connections are evoked by the bird-shaped finial (lot 3795; cat. no. 11a). Both finials served as emblems of spiritual and/or ruling power when it was carried and prominently displayed on top of a staff during courtly or religious rituals.
A much more obvious display of power is the axe with faceted blade (lot 3797). One of just four ritual blades in the collection, Robert Tang acquired it after the publication of the 2015 catalogue. Like a true collector, he could not let an unique opportunity pass. When it was offered in Paris in December that year, its late 1930s European provenance was duly noted.9 However, the auction catalogue did not mention its association with Huang Jun, a highly respected scholar-collector-dealer of Chinese antiquities in Beijing, from whom western collectors like Sherman Lee and Laurence Sickman made frequent purchases. Huang Jun published the axe as a full-sized rubbing in 1935 among archaic jades known to him in Beijing.10 In the rubbing, the axe’s original damages (now restored) are clearly visible (fig. 3).
Archaeological discoveries since have revealed the rarity and importance of this axe. Only a small handful of axes with faceted edges are known — three from the pre-Anyang site of Erlitou (c. 1700-1500 BC),11 and an heirloom, from the late Western Zhou burial (Tomb 84) at Pingdingshan, both in Henan province — all virtually identical to this axe.12 Two more, their faceted edges softer and less pronounced, came from later contexts: one from a powerful Shang-dynasty general’s burial (Tomb 54) at Anyang (c. 1300 BC), Henan,13 and the other from Jinsha at Chengdu (c. 1100 BC), Sichuan province.14 The current axe is the largest among all of them. Its close similarities — the fine serrations at the sides and crisp facets at the edge — with the three examples from Erlitou and the heirloom from Pingdingshan suggest that it belongs to this rarefied early group. As a symbol of power at the dawn of the Bronze Age China, it is unmatched.
Robert Tang’s purchase of this axe blade, after his collection has just been published when most collectors tend to rest on their laurels, perfectly illustrates how a keen eye for unique opportunities and an astute historical awareness can steer a collector to rewarding choices. His collection was formed with similar stories that he shared in his essay in the 2015 catalogue. One story in particular reveals the distances he was prepared to go to ensure opportunities are not missed. After he learned from a local dealer that a group of intricately carved Western Zhou pendant ornaments (lots 3805, 3806 and 3810; cat. nos 12a-b, 13) had been sold to Robert Ellsworth, he traveled to New York and purchased them back. He then waited patiently for the dealer to part with the remaining pieces in that group (lots 3788, 3807, 3814 and 3813; cat. nos 8b, 12d-f). His persistence and patience paid off — this collection now includes some of the best Western Zhou jades still in private hands.
Finally, three Han period miniatures deserve mention. The attention to descriptive detail and subtle animation of two small bears (lots 3832 and 3836; cat. nos 26a-b) evoke larger examples associated with the imperial mausoleum of the Western Han emperor Jingdi (48-33 BC) at Weiling, outside Xianyang in Shaanxi province.15 The turquoise ornament composed of four creatures energetically weaving in and out of a spherical space (lot 3846; cat. no. 27a) is a microcosm of Han naturalistic design and masterful execution.
In my introduction to Robert Tang’s 2015 catalogue, I noted that his collection of Chinese jades “represents one collector’s choice from what was available during the past half century, and his profound love and appreciation of the over 5,000-year history of China’s oldest art form.” This remains the best description of the jades offered here.
1 Christie’s New York, 1st December 1994, lot 116; published in Jenny F. So, with Chu Xin, Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2015, cat. no. 19.
2 See Robert Tang, ‘Our Collection’, Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, op.cit., pp. 6-18.
3 Ming Wilson, Book Review, Arts of Asia, May-June 2016.
4 Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, op.cit., cat. nos 28-48.
5 Jenny F. So, ‘Jades from Niuheliang: Answers to an Archaeological Problem?’, Zurich Studies in the History of Art, Institute of Art History, University of Zurich, Zurich, 2006/07, vol. 13/14, 2009, pp. 79-101; Table 2.
6 See Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, op.cit., cat. no. 3; the extent of ancient China’s jade communities in the north is discussed in Jenny F. So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, 2019, chapter 3, pp. 49-54.
7 Sold at Christie’s New York, 20th March 2014, lot 2000; brief provenance information appears before lot 2204. See also Robert C. Hastings, ‘Olaf K. Skinsnes, M.D., Ph.D. – An Appreciation’, International Journal of Leprosy, 1979, pp. 59-60.
8 Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, op.cit., cat. no. 9, figs 9.1-9.4.
9 Sotheby’s Paris, 16th December 2015, Trésors de la Chine Ancienne de la Collection David David-Weill, lot 43.
10 Huang Jun, Hengzhai cangjian guyu tu [Ancient jades collected and seen by Hengzhai], Peking, 1935.
11 Two are published in Kaogu [Archaeology],1976, vol. 4, pl. 6:1; p. 262, fig. 6:3-4; and the third in Kaogu [Archaeology], 1986, vol. 4, pl. 7:3.
12 Pingdingshan Ying guo mudi [Cemetery of the Ying State in Pingdingshan], Zhengzhou, 2012, p. 608, fig. 289:1-2.
13 Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Unearthed Jades in China, Beijing, 2005, vol. 5, no. 83.
14 Jinsha yuqi [Jade of the Jinsha site], Beijing, 2006, p. 91.
15 Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, op.cit., cat. no. 26, fig. 26:1-2.
