Chapter 764 Competitors
Among the 150 pieces of porcelain, the latest ones are from the Ming Dynasty, including Ming five-color porcelain, Hongwu plum vase with cloud and dragon pattern, Yongle blue and white "Neifu" inscribed plum vase, Yongle blue and white sea water dragon pattern Flat pot, Zhengde yellow ground blue and white plate with broken branches and flowers, etc.
There is another good thing that makes Zhou Zhi covetous - a purple-red glaze basin from Mingjun kiln.
The Yuan Dynasty collection includes blue and white dragon and peony amphora with curly grass pattern, blue and white plum vase with peony and curly grass pattern, and blue and white lotus pond and mandarin duck pattern bowl. The most powerful one among them is the most powerful one when opening any book. Blue and white books must be accompanied by high-definition photos - a large blue and white fish and algae pattern jar.
However, these things are not the most important collection of Anzhai Eiichi. His most exquisite collection, like Zhou Zhi's, is Song porcelain.
Among them are the Northern Song Dynasty Ru kiln celadon narcissus basin, Cizhou kiln black glaze engraved peony pattern plum vase, Ding kiln white glaze engraved peony pattern vase, Southern Song Dynasty official kiln Bafang vase, Longquan kiln celadon long-necked bottle, Yue kiln celadon engraved flower scroll pattern. Flower mouth plate, Ge kiln Guaner vase, Yaozhou kiln Dulu vase, etc.
Cultural relics from the Five Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty include figurines of ladies, three-color glazed pottery from the Tang Dynasty, pots with chicken heads and dragon handles from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the most important one is a black-glazed pot with white spots, which is incredibly beautiful.
All of these cultural relics have been classified as "Important Cultural Properties" by the island country, and the two most important ones have been directly designated as "National Treasures".
One is an oil-drop Tianmu lamp from the Jizhou Kiln of Jianji Shui in the Song Dynasty, and the other is a pointillist flying celadon jade pot and spring vase from the Longquan Kiln of the Yuan Dynasty.
The oil-drop Tianmu lamp is a type of kiln-building porcelain. The kiln-building porcelain is a red pottery body with a thick glaze on the outside. After firing, the iron ions in the glaze will form various dazzling crystal flowers. , the most famous is of course another national treasure collected by the island country, the "Yao Bian Tianmu Bowl".
This is related to the custom of tea fighting at that time. This custom has been spread in the island country and eventually evolved into matcha.
Although Eiichi Anzhai's oil-drop Tenmoku bowl has a slightly lower status than the Yaobian Tenmoku bowl, it is still included in the "National Treasure" sequence.
Another "Flying Blue" jade pot spring vase is quite similar to the black-glazed white-spotted vase from the Tang Dynasty collected by Eiichi Anzhai.
The so-called "flying green" means that there are some petal-like "red spots" on the base of Longquan kiln celadon. In China, it is called "stippling" craft. It often appeared on early celadon. In the Song Dynasty It disappeared briefly during this period, and in the Yuan Dynasty, it began to appear in a free and lively form again.
After the reappearance of flying celadon stippling, compared with the previous ones, the glaze color is more lustrous, the stippling is clearer and more agile, and it has a natural flying flower beauty.
Anzhai Eichi said that this piece in his collection is a "magic item" in the Yuan Dynasty flying celadon pointillism craftsmanship.
In addition to these two national treasures, Zhou Zhi also picked out one piece from the collection of Eiichi Anzhai, which was also from Jizhou kiln, but it was called "Konoha lamp". Zhou Zhi thought that this special porcelain bowl should also be Included in the "National Treasure" sequence.
This magical craft is the most familiar to collectors in Jizhou kilns.
After applying the glaze, the craftsman will take a leaf and stick it on the tea cup.
After entering the kiln, the leaves will disappear when exposed to high temperatures. However, during the disappearance process, a magical chemical reaction occurs between the glaze surface and the leaf veins, and the crystals will first crystallize along the "foreign matter" on the bowl surface, thus The leaves on the surface of the bowl are permanently "reproduced".
Just like Opal, another magical gemstone in nature, a falling leaf is placed in fire and mud, and finally turns into an indelible rainbow kiln pattern.
The Zen memories left in that era between birth and death naturally became what everyone later pursued.
However, the process itself is not necessarily perfect. The early circulation of Konoha lamps often had unclear veins or incomplete appearance.
The leaf lamp of Anzhai Eiichi has very complete leaves. The petioles and main ribs are all warm green and yellow colors, with clear veins. When viewed from different angles in a black-bottomed bowl, the leaves will change from yellow to yellow. The changes in the cold and warm colors that appear in the layered cyan-blue tones are called "iridescent". Therefore, this lamp is called the "King of Konoha lamps" in the industry. When Zhou Zhi closed the high-definition picture album of Anzhai Eiichi's Chinese collection, he couldn't help but sigh: "It's so enviable. But Director Wang, I have a problem..."
"What's the problem?"
"This Anzhai Eiichi, he likes collecting porcelain, why is he suddenly interested in calligraphy and copybooks?"
"We also thought about this problem at the beginning. Strange, I later found out that he was influenced by another island collector, Goro Sakamoto. Please."
Zhou Zhi frowned: "Who is this?"
"They are both friends and rivals," said Director Wang. The large Yuan blue and white fish and algae pattern jar was purchased from Sakamoto Goro that year. ”
"Later at the auction, the two competed for the Northern Song Dynasty Ru kiln celadon narcissus basin. In the end, Goro Sakamoto tried his best but was unable to compete with Eiichi Anzai, the powerful president of the trading company. This matter became a Goro Sakamoto A lifelong regret."
"Goro Sakamoto is an expert in Chinese cultural relics. His collection is much wider than that of Eiichi Anzhai, and he is very interested in calligraphy." Director Wang said, "Because An Siyuan also wants it. these two In this post, Goro Sakamoto may have thought that he was not strong enough to compete with Ellsworth, so he entrusted Eichi Anzai to come forward."
"It seems that Ellsworth is not a good person..."
Director Wang patted another document in Zhou Zhi's hand: "Indeed, you will know after reading this document."
Zhou Zhi opened the document and found that this person also He is a very legendary figure.
An Siyuan has been influenced by the famous painter Wang Fangyu, a researcher of calligraphy and painting in the United States, since he was a child. In addition to his strong interest in Chinese culture, he also showed extremely high talent.
When he was fourteen years old, he found a porcelain vase at a street stall for a few dollars, and then sent it to the famous store that claimed to 'advance the West's understanding of Chinese art by a hundred years' Pang Nainai, a female collector, thought it was a piece of Chinese porcelain from the seventeenth century.
Pang Nai was shocked after the appraisal, and then began to teach Ellsworth carefully. Under Pang Nai's influence and education, Ellsworth eventually became the absolute authority on Chinese art.
Later he opened a gallery and became recognized as the most discerning and tasteful antique dealer and collector in the United States and the entire Western art world, as well as the richest collector. Known as the ‘godfather of Chinese antiques’.
After he got rich, he bought a huge apartment with twenty-two rooms on Fifth Avenue, the most prestigious area in Manhattan. It was less than two blocks away from the Metropolitan Museum and was said to be the best in New York. One of three properties.
In that apartment, there are nearly 1,500 antiques collected. It includes traditional British furniture, European decorative arts, Chinese furniture, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, porcelain, jade, rare books, and art collections from Japan, India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia.
Zhou Zhi was dumbfounded when he read this, because in general museums, there are about 500 cultural relics on display. Ellsworth displays these 1,500 antiques. If one-tenth of them are If there are two copies of "Chunhua Pavilion Posts", his collection is so rich that even ordinary museums may not be able to compare with his.
Now this man is also serving as a consultant to the Art Donation Review Committee of the US Internal Revenue Service. Apart from him, the other four consultants are all experts or curators of major museums, which shows his strength.
Director Wang said: "If Anzhai Eiichi's collection is a 'fine', this person's collection is a 'bo'."
(End of this chapter)