In contrast to the West, where diamonds, gold and silver have usually been highly valued, in China bronzes and jades were chosen early on for the societyâe(tm)s most valued artefacts, and retained this very high status over millennia. Bronze and jades were used in China for ritual and burial, and were thus associated with the sacred worlds of the ancestors and spirits. In later China, these precious relics of the past were collected by rulers and scholars as routes to understanding a distant golden age. These ancient objects, some dating from the neolithic period, set the artistic standard for all time; this is where Chinese art begins. Chinese bronzes, in particular, are one of the worldâe(tm)s major art forms. Few if any other ancient cultures achieved the artistic excellence and technical virtuosity in bronze attained in China. Using a unique casting method involving multiple ceramic section moulds, the Chinese cast vessels, weapons and ornaments of great beauty and elegance. Jade, too, is central to Chinaâe(tm)s culture. This tough translucent stone has been worked to produce the most prized ornaments and ceremonial implements from the Neolithic period to the present day. The jades featured in this catalogue, carved by some of the groups of ancient inhabitants in the Shanghai area. They include wonderful, decorated ritual jades, cong, bi discs, weapons and ornaments. This catalogue not only celebrates an important collection, but highlights the extraordinary skills of the craftsmen of very early cultures, placing the objects in their historical and archaeological context. Here are exquisite objects made for the ancient Chinese elite and subsequently revered by emperors and collectors alike.

Anthony Hardy's Sze Yuan Tang Collection of ancient Chinese had its inspirational beginnings in the early 1950s when, as a schoolboy in England, he was struck by the architechtonic beauty of a solitary Shang jue tripod wine vessel in his father's collection of predominantly Western medieval art. There is little doubt that his early encounter with the archaic jue led to an intense interest in early Chinese art and in ancient Chinese ritual bronzes in particular. Hardy started collecting bronzes seriously in the early 1980s and places great importance on what he calls the"Four P's"-Patination, Pictogram, Precision and Provenance. To Hardy, a bronze vessel worthy of collecting must have a good natural Patination, nature's contribution to a great work of bronze art; a Pictogram or inscription of historic significance; Precision and sharpness of casting; and also Provenance recording the academic history of the piece, the collections it has been in, where it has been exhibited and what has been written about it. When Hardy married Susan Chen they decided that the exhibition of Hardy's principally Shang ritual bronzes scheduled for late 2000 at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore should be expanded to include sculptural animal bronzes and the more feminine and jewel-like inlaid bronzes of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods belonging to Chen's own collection. Together the two collections offer a more extensive view of the glorious traditions of ancient Chinese bronzes.