Chapter 1061: Bringing precious collections into life
After Yongzheng ascended the throne, although he was involved in heavy state affairs, he still entertained himself from time to time by focusing on other things.
At this time, chrysanthemum patterns became popular in many court artworks of the Yongzheng Dynasty.
For example, among the Yongzheng enamel-colored porcelains regarded as treasures of the Qing Dynasty, there are no less than 20 pieces with chrysanthemums as the decorative theme, which are unique.
Among them, the twelve-color chrysanthemum petal plate carefully made by the imperial kiln factory in the 11th year of Yongzheng's reign fully reveals Yinzhen's love for chrysanthemums.
Twelve smooth and lustrous glaze colors demonstrate the fresh and refined artistic charm, integrating the literati's interest into it, and it has become an unparalleled famous product, unrivaled in ancient and modern times.
Therefore, the value of a set of 20 to 30 million is really not high.
If he could spend 30 million to buy a twelve-color Yongzheng chrysanthemum plate, Chen Wenzhe would buy it without hesitation, but is this possible?
Impossible! Until now, there has never been a complete set of records of the Yongzheng twelve-color chrysanthemum petal plate handed down from generation to generation.
And it’s not just twelve colors, there are at least six other glaze colors that are now known.
Even so, no one has been able to collect all the twelve-color chrysanthemum petals.
Since the collection of genuine Yongzheng twelve-color chrysanthemum petals is incomplete, Chen Wenzhe plans to make a set himself.
Looking at the porcelain made in front of me, the lemon yellow is clear and pleasant, the rouge water is delicate and charming, and the sweet white glaze is pure and sweet.
Finally, Chen Wenzhe's eyes fell on the white glazed porcelain plate.
It is such a simple piece of porcelain. If it was from the Yongzheng period or the Qianlong period, how much could it fetch?
Two chrysanthemum petal plates came out of the kiln, one is an imitation of the Yongzheng white-glazed chrysanthemum petal plate, and the other is an imitation of the Qianlong white-glazed chrysanthemum petal plate.
Let’s not talk about the Yongzheng period. After all, the porcelain of the Qianlong period was more showy, so it looked more dazzling.
Therefore, the white glazed chrysanthemum petal dish in front of you, even though it is simply glazed with white glaze, looks absolutely extraordinary.
This Qianlong white-glazed chrysanthemum petal plate has white glaze on both the inside and outside of the plate. The glaze is bright and flawless, with no trace of carvings over time. It is calm and indifferent, with a natural charm. It is as beautiful as a peerless beauty.
In addition to the beautiful glaze color, this chrysanthemum petal plate has another eye-catching feature, which is the six-character double-circle regular script inscription "Made in the Qianlong Year of the Qing Dynasty" written in blue and white on the bottom of the plate.
Most of the porcelain produced in the Qianlong imperial kiln are in seal script, while regular script inscriptions are quite rare.
"How much is such a genuine item worth?"
Looking at the simple shape of the device, Zhang Gu also asked curiously.
"Eight hundred thousand for the real thing!" Chen Wenzhe said after thinking for a moment.
"Eight hundred thousand?" Zhang Gu felt a little surprised.
"Although this treasure belongs to Qianlong, it was fired within only two years of Qianlong's accession to the throne. The quality is no different from that of Yongzheng. Logically speaking, it should be at the same price as Yongzheng, and it also has a rare mark.
In fact, the price of this kind of Qianlong imperial model should be higher than that of Yongzheng, but in the market, among the chrysanthemum petal plate series, Yongzheng is still recognized. This is the brand! Just like Qianlong's carmine can be sold at a higher price.
."
Although Yongzheng was aloof and minimalist, and only loved chrysanthemums, while Qianlong preferred the flower of human wealth, but judging from the Qianlong white-glazed chrysanthemum petal plate and the lemon yellow-glazed chrysanthemum petal plate, at least in the early Qianlong period, the taste difference between the father and son was not that big.
It's just that in the later period, Qianlong's aesthetics broke away from the aloof category and became festive, lively, and magnificent.
Two opposing aesthetic views in the history of Chinese aesthetics - "hibiscus out of water" and "gold engraving with different colors", were interpreted to the extreme by this father and son.
The emperor's personal aesthetics would run through the entire process of making official arts and crafts.
The chrysanthemum petal plate must be the essence of the single-color glaze during the reign of Yongzheng and his sons.
Zhang Gu was silent for a while, then pointed to a green-glazed chrysanthemum dish again and asked, "What about this one? How much does it cost if it comes from Yongzheng?"
Chen Wenzhe's eyes left the clear white chrysanthemum dish and looked at the green glazed chrysanthemum petal dish.
In the past, there was a transaction record for a Yongzheng pink celadon-glazed chrysanthemum dish. Chen Wenzhe remembered that the transaction price seemed to be 1.61 million.
The transaction price of the Yongzheng white-glazed chrysanthemum petal dish was 3.45 million, the Yongzheng purple-gold glazed chrysanthemum petal dish was 4.6 million, the Yongzheng blue-glazed chrysanthemum petal dish was 3.45 million, and the Qianlong lemon-yellow glazed chrysanthemum petal dish was 1.495 million.
It can be said that with every additional transaction, the closer the time is to the present, the price of the chrysanthemum plate will hit a new high again!
Therefore, every time the Chrysanthemum Petal Plate comes up for auction and the transaction is successful, the porcelain collecting circle is in an uproar.
Chen Wenzhe produced several high-quality products one after another, which made Chen Wenzhe full of confidence.
If you are prepared in advance, it will be easy to make the chrysanthemum dish again.
Now there is a large row of chrysanthemum petal plate embryos lying next to them, and they have been dried for a day. Now after they are glazed, they can be dried for a while before being fired in the kiln.
This time Chen Wenzhe prepared more glaze.
White glaze is the easiest, carmine red and rouge water are the most troublesome, yellow glaze and green glaze are ordinary, black glaze needs to be studied, and sauce glaze also needs to be a little more careful.
He knew the recipe of sauce glaze, also known as purple gold glaze, but he had never made it once.
After a little calculation, if you include variations of the same color, this kind of single-color glaze porcelain really has more than twelve colors.
Even adding six glaze colors is an understatement.
Since you have to do something, you have to do it well and do it completely.
Before doing this, you need to determine which ones are genuine and which ones are added gifts.
Looking at the exquisite pictures printed by Zhang Gu, Chen Wenzhe expressed satisfaction.
Zhang Gu definitely put his heart into it, otherwise where could he find so many pictures of single-color glazed chrysanthemum petal plates?
The most eye-catching among them should be the glaze colors of black, white, green and yellow.
In the hundreds of years after the birth of porcelain, there were only a few simple colors such as black, white, green, and yellow.
Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, colors have gradually increased, but they are still very limited.
Many glaze colors are difficult to fire and require high craftsmanship, making them difficult to present.
But this set of twelve-color chrysanthemum petals only displays twelve glaze colors, some of which have never been seen before.
Even today, with the advanced porcelain making technology, it is enough to impress people.
When a layman sees these porcelains, his first impression is that they are not only beautiful but also simple.
But everyone in the know knows that pure single-color glaze is difficult to fire.
Decorating porcelain with a single glaze color is also called monochromatic glaze. The way it is presented seems simple, it is just to cover the chrysanthemum petal plate with one color, but the difficulty behind it is far beyond what ordinary people see.
High temperature kiln changes, different glaze colors, and the firing processes used are also different.
When firing, it is also necessary to ensure that the glaze is uniform. Because it is a single color, any local color differences will be exposed intuitively, and the uneven texture of the chrysanthemum petal plate adds to the difficulty of the process.
It can be said that Chen Wenzhe has admired Yongzheng's twelve-color chrysanthemum disk for a long time, but in his opinion, cultural relics placed in museums are, after all, aloof and far away from the lives of us ordinary people.
Art comes from life, and it should also belong to life.
Now that he has the opportunity, he will naturally fire the twelve-color chrysanthemum petal plate to reproduce the Yongzheng classics and let the precious collections come into life and no longer be aloof.