Chapter 1616 Foreigners don’t know the goods
“Hi, Mr. Xiao Zhou, we meet again.” The owner of the antique shop is an old man in a suit and leather shoes with a white beard. He came here two days ago. "Child" came again, and he quickly greeted him happily.
"Hey John, aren't you busy at the back today?" Zhou Zhi also greeted him with a smile.
Zhou Zhi is also a country bumpkin. He was at such an occasion for the first time two days ago and was still at a loss. Unexpectedly, he used the trick he used when searching for houses in his hometown, and it worked just as well. Now he is familiar with Old John. .
The first time Zhou Zhi was looking for something in this store, he was attracted by a pair of "table lamps" placed at the door. The upper part of the pair of desk lamps was an ordinary cylindrical lampshade, and the lower part was a porcelain bottle modified into , the porcelain vase is 40 centimeters in height and more than 20 centimeters in diameter. When Zhou Zhi saw it for the first time, he was so frightened that he could hardly believe his eyes.
Qing Dynasty pastel green flower and dragon and phoenix ear vase, with a large door opening at a glance, a thing from the Qianlong Dynasty.
The forty-centimeter-tall pair of vases are extremely rare among the pastel porcelain of the Qianlong Dynasty.
So Zhou Zhi squatted down at the door and studied the "bases" of the pair of desk lamps carefully.
This is a pair of Qing Dynasty pastel green green field dragon and phoenix ear vases. The shape of the vases is regular and full, steady yet agile. It is roughly the shape of a large celestial sphere vase, but there is an extra pair at the mouth of the bottle. Gold colored handle.
Both bottles are slightly taller and have smooth lines, showing a graceful curve.
The bottom of the bottle is pink, which contrasts with the turquoise green of the bottle, creating a unique color contrast.
The entire bottle is covered with exquisite patterns, with green as the main color, matched with pink flowers and golden grass and dragon patterns, full of vitality and vitality.
On the edge of the bottle mouth, the gold painting process is exquisite and gorgeous. The golden lines outline an elegant outline, echoing the green and pink colors of the bottle, making the entire bottle mouth even more exquisite.
The handle of one bottle is a pair of chilongs, and the handle of the other bottle is a pair of phoenix birds. The two pairs of handles are decorated with coral glaze and gold tracing, which are lifelike, exquisite and luxurious, forming a pair of A major feature of the bottle. It complements the flower, grass and dragon patterns on the bottle, showing a harmonious and unified beauty.
The whole body of the vessel is painted with entwining flowers, grass and dragon patterns, which is an example of fine painting skills. Every petal and leaf seems to be infused with life, vivid and rhythmic.
The golden grass dragon pattern shuttles among the flowers, which not only plays a decorative role, but also symbolizes good luck and wealth. This kind of finely painted pattern not only shows the ancients' exquisite skills in art, but also reflects their yearning and pursuit of a better life, which is full of nobility.
The bottom mark is the red color "Made in the Qianlong Year of the Qing Dynasty", indicating that the vase was made in the middle of the Qianlong period, a peak of Chinese porcelain craftsmanship.
As a pair of antique art collections, these bottles are definitely treasures in porcelain craftsmanship. With excellent craftsmanship and unique design, every detail is full of charm and stories. While admiring it, people can also feel the wisdom and ingenuity of the ancients.
If this pair of bottles were placed on Hong Kong Island or in China, they would attract much attention and be sought after in the collecting community, becoming a treasure coveted by many antique lovers. But here, they are reduced to ordinary goods piled in front of the store.
The most regrettable thing for Zhou Zhi is that in order to show his unique taste, the former owner of these two bottles transformed these precious large bottles into two bedside lamps. In order to facilitate the wiring, the porcelain A small hole was opened at the bottom, and with a wooden base with holes, a pair of them were directly placed on the ornamental objects that were very precious in ancient times, and turned into a modern practical device! Zhou Zhi was so heartbroken that he almost shed tears, because these two little eyes directly wiped out two-thirds of the value of the porcelain. According to the normal international market price, these large pairs of bottles, which started out as one million US dollars, are now worth Three hundred thousand dollars is no longer worth it.
When Old John was called over and asked about the price, the other party offered two hundred dollars. Zhou Zhi was so angry that he immediately paid back thirty dollars.
Asking two hundred dollars showed that the boss was a slut, and Zhou Zhi was angry, so he hit back hard.
After that, the two sides began to negotiate, and the two sides gradually negotiated a price that was acceptable to both parties, one hundred and thirty US dollars.
When Zhou Zhi took out two hundred dollars, Old John started cheating again, saying that he had not opened the business yet and could not find it, so he asked Zhou Zhi to choose another piece of porcelain to pay the bill.
After some searching, Zhou Zhi actually picked out a lot of good things from a large pile of antique porcelain, especially two pieces of Kangxi glaze multicolored wildflowers, which Zhou Zhi couldn't put down.
They are all things that can be distinguished at a glance. Kangxi Wucai is a category with very distinctive characteristics of the times. The biggest feature is that "the people win over the officials".
"Yin Liu Zhai Talks about Porcelain" says: "Both hard color and blue and white are based on the Kangxi period." "Tao Ya" records: "Kangxi's color painting skills are exquisite, and the figures in the official kiln are best seen in the farming and weaving pictures. The rest of the dragons, phoenixes, and lotuses must be respectful and respectful, or they may not be as good as the weird ones of passengers and cargo. . The paintings painted by Gai Kehuo are mostly monsters and old trees, and they are bold and unrestrained with their brushes."
It means that Kangxi's colorful porcelain, "customer goods", that is, folk kilns, because the degree of freedom in creative themes and techniques is much higher than that of official kilns, so it is "strange", that is, satisfying In terms of customer psychology, it is far better than Guanyao.
The flower-themed decorations of the Kangxi Dynasty also have obvious characteristics of the times. The themes on the wildflowers are also characteristics of the Kangxi Dynasty. The painting method of peonies is particularly unique. I like to draw two animals on the flowers. It has horns, so it is also known as "horned peony" and "double-horned peony".
As a product of folk kilns, the decorations are not deliberate descriptions of natural phenomena, but are passed down from generation to generation to refine and summarize the characteristics of a certain thing, and finally express the theme concisely, which has a good decorative effect. .
The technical characteristics of this pattern are also one of the important means of identifying authenticity. In order to deliberately pursue "no difference" from the original, imitations often use slow and hesitant brushwork, which is not as skillful as the craftsmen of the original. It all depends on muscle memory. The difference between the two may not be visible to a layman, but to someone like Zhou Zhi who is used to calligraphy, this is the huge difference between "writing" and "drawing".
Of course, they found a bunch of things again and used them to offset the sixty dollars. Old John was about to lose money again, and a new round of bargaining began again. In the end, the two of them negotiated seven pieces of porcelain, large and small. The deal came to $400.
After asking Old John if he could still deliver goods, Zhou Zhi left an address for Ellsworth to Old John and asked for the two hundred dollars back. He might need to go shopping in other places soon. Then he wrote a new check to Old John and added twenty dollars for shipping.
Seeing that Zhou Zhi was able to take out his checkbook, Old John couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he said to Zhou Zhi: "I still have a lot of bottles with this style in my warehouse. Tomorrow is my time to take inventory. George, if you are interested, I can take you there.”
Zhou Zhi's heart was pounding when he heard this, but he showed a very calm expression on his face: "I just took a look. I may not have time tomorrow. When will you leave? If it's too early, forget it."
"Not early, not early. If you are interested, I can wait for you. What do you think of nine o'clock? How about... ten o'clock?"