Chapter 1015: The ruler is long and the inch is short
Jingzhen’s research on ancient porcelain is really professional.
What is the use of studying various signs and characteristics?
Is it just a matter of simply appreciating the power and finding the unique beauty in antiques?
Chen Wenzhe didn't believe this. The characteristics of ancient porcelain that everyone in Jingzhen noticed must have been copied by someone.
Seeing Chen Wenzhe's thoughtful expression, the two old men laughed. This was the effect they wanted.
At this time, Lao Li also said an interesting thing, of course it was also about old-fashioned skills.
What he is talking about is the earthy aroma, which means that when ancient porcelain has been underground for several years, the porcelain absorbs the smell from the soil, and when the water is warm, it emits it.
Because the underground environment is different, the earthy aroma is also different. You can smell it even if it is hundreds of years old.
As soon as Lao Li finished speaking, Lao Zhou spoke again.
People know a lot. Since it has an earthy aroma, does it also have a wine aroma?
This refers to the aroma of roasted wine, which is usually produced in wine vessels. After the ancient porcelain wine vessels are unearthed, they are moistened with water and roasted with slow fire. The aroma of wine can be smelled in the earthy aroma, especially in pottery.
The smell coming from dry or rotten pits is another kind of smell.
Different smells can tell the general environment when they were unearthed.
This is an auxiliary feature for judging ancient porcelain, which requires people with a keen sense of smell to perceive it.
Chen Wenzhe must have touched on this aspect of knowledge, such as the earthy smell, but there is more than just the earthy smell on porcelain.
As for the earthy aroma, he really didn't know what environment would produce the so-called aroma.
As for the aroma of wine, it was easy to understand, but he had never paid attention to such details before.
Chen Wenzhe sighed very much, this is a professional!
Even when it comes to the layer of precious light on porcelain, there are many opinions.
As mentioned before, Chen Wenzhe knows that there are many lights, but he really doesn't know much about matt.
It turns out that Chen Wenzhe focused on the clam light, but now he knows that in addition to the clam light, there are other lights when broken down.
For example, hazy light, this phenomenon can now be explained by the principle of thermoluminescence.
In ancient times, people with keen vision could scald ancient porcelain with boiling water in a dark place, and they would see a white, fuzzy light that was slightly larger than that of ancient porcelain, but not new porcelain.
In addition to hazy light, there is also matte light, which is a mild and dim light generated due to the aging of the glaze.
Also known as a piece of light, the longer it gets, the gentler it becomes.
Because more than ten years after leaving the kiln, the glaze crystals decomposed and disintegrated, and countless gaps that were invisible to the naked eye began to appear between the lattice structures, and they became larger with age. As a result, the light could not be directed directly, resulting in diffuse light.
So what you see is matt light.
Matte is definitely an important feature in judging ancient porcelain.
Chen Wenzhe definitely doesn't know about this kind of subdivided Baoguang, and he has never heard that it can be imitated.
In addition to matt gloss, there is also butter gloss, which is similar to matt gloss but has an oily texture. It is common in Guan and Ge kilns.
This makes it even more difficult to see any imitations, even if there are very few three-dimensional images.
Because for Guan and Ge kilns, people have not yet understood the production techniques of the ancients.
After hearing this statement, Chen Wenzhe realized that he had the craftsmanship of his brother kiln, and could even derive the technology of his brother kiln.
In addition, he now also knows some treasure-firing techniques. If all these are added up, can Ru kiln porcelain also be used?
In fact, he had generally skimmed over what the two old men said, but he had not studied it in such detail or so thoroughly.
This time the two old men really talked about something. Chen Wenzhe didn't pay attention to some things, or he noticed them, but had no way to get deeper knowledge. Both old men said some things.
For example, it is still the same ox hair pattern as before, which is the scratches caused by various external factors because the porcelain has been around for a long time.
In addition to hard scratches, there are also soft scratches.
Fine items in ancient porcelain are generally cherished by people, or are placed in remote places because they are inconvenient and practical.
Some of them have been carefully protected since they were purchased, and no one has even touched them.
There is no porcelain on the market that has been protected with such care. It is as old as new!
Such porcelain has very few imperfections. If it were to be imitated, the imitator would not know what was going on and pretend to have imperfections, which would be a flaw.
There are also some porcelains that were unearthed not long ago, and most of them have no scratches on the glaze.
This kind of porcelain also needs attention when imitating it.
Unearthed porcelain and existing porcelain will leave more or less traces over time.
In addition to what was mentioned above, the two old men also mentioned some things before, such as crab claw lines.
However, this feature appears more often on Ru porcelain. It is caused by cracks in the glaze, and there are many small bubbles strung on the cracks, which are later contaminated into black, so it is vividly called crab claw pattern.
There are also caviar patterns, which are lobes shaped like fish roes. The flakes are small, have large gaps, and are black in color. They are the characteristics of ancient porcelain and are difficult to imitate.
Finally, there are turtle cracks, such as splits of turtle shells, large pieces.
Ancient porcelain has large tortoise cracks and black color, and Ru porcelain is the most obvious.
The seam color is formed after leaving the kiln. If it was formed thousands of years ago, there must be signs of tubular seams.
At present, no one can imitate it, and not many people know this feature.
There is no written work on the fact that porcelain produced after its introduction in the past hundred years is mostly colorless and is not much different from modern imitations.
In addition to some of the characteristics of ancient porcelain that Chen Wenzhe originally knew, there are many details on the real ancient porcelain.
Only then did Chen Wenzhe realize that making things old is really a science.
Just like the Yuan Qinghua he knew before, if you want to make it, you can find dozens of features. It needs to be fully covered, done well one by one, and set to standards to make a high imitation.
Therefore, high imitations of Yuan blue and white are always very expensive in the market.
Only then did he realize that other antique ceramics could be easily copied?
It's just that the price is different and the degree of care in imitation is different.
If you want to make a truly top-notch high imitation, you still need to grasp some details.
It turns out that Chen Wenzhe copied the work, but he only knew what it was but didn’t know why.
Based on inherited techniques, he was able to make porcelain that was very similar to ancient porcelain, and even looked exactly the same in appearance. However, he was not precise in grasping many details.
And this is the important reason why he cannot imitate high-quality ancient porcelain. The porcelain that Chen Wenzhe can imitate so far is at most designed to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
For example, Kangxi and Qianlong could not even make some of the peak porcelain of the Ming Dynasty.
It turns out that he just didn't have the Ma Cang soil to imitate the fine porcelain of the Ming Dynasty. Now that he thinks about it, even if he was given the Ma Cang soil, he seems to be unable to make high-quality imitations of the third dynasty of Qing Dynasty.
As the old saying goes, live and learn, and this is absolutely true.
By this time, Chen Wenzhe could no longer handle some of the in-depth things people said.
However, when others said something useful, Chen Wenzhe couldn't just listen.
Fortunately, he is really knowledgeable and has a strong memory. Besides, if we can't talk about ancient porcelain, we can't talk about ancient tombs?
If you have some strengths and weaknesses, if you are short of knowledge, use your own expertise to make up for it!