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The Ancient Chinese Imperial Relic that Achieved $5.4 Million
The Zhou Zha Hu’s extraordinary auction result places the Qing Dynasty treasure as the second-most-valuable work of Chinese art sold this year.
A n inscription on the Zhou Zha Hu proclaims that the ancient Chinese imperial relic will be treasured eternally for 10,000 years. Only 3,000 years after its making, as the Zhou Zha Hu passed the auction block at Sotheby’s, six collectors vied for the vessel, seeing its value quickly jog into the millions – surely treasured territory. When auctioneer Henry Howard-Sneyd hammered the gavel after six minutes, the extraordinary object sold to the Hong Kong-based Huaihaitang Collection for $5.4 million, the second-highest price for a work of Chinese art this year.
The Huaihaitang Collection will exhibit the Zhou Zha Hu at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2026 to mark the 65th anniversary of the Min Chiu Society, a group of collectors dedicated to showcasing Chinese cultural treasures. The hu’s incredible history certainly makes it deserving of the honor.
In the 18th century, the Qianlong Emperor of China commissioned the Xiqing gujian, a study of thousands of the imperial collection’s most cherished archaic bronzes. One item was the Zhou Zha Hu, half of a pair of intricately designed and crafted ritual wine vessels dating to the 10th-9th century BC. Commissioned by Zhou Zha in honor of his father, Ri Ji, the millennia-old masterpiece played an important role in sacred rituals conducted to honor the dynastic family’s Shang ancestors – and to ensure the legacy of the clan and its aristocratic privileges. Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the imperial collection was transported from the Forbidden City to Taiwan for safekeeping, where the Zhou Zhu Ha’s twin still resides in the National Palace Museum of Taipei.
Indeed, the Zhou Zha Hu was the star of Sotheby’s $15.3-million, 273-lot auction of Chinese Art. Other standouts include a Qing-dynasty figure of Puxian seated on an elephant that achieved $1.2 million, a yangcai lotus vase that sold for $996,000 and a rare Jun-imitation vase that realized $480,000 – all three of which surpassed their high estimates.
