Chapter 1,178: The Blue and White 'Longevity' Pattern of the Grand Master
In recent times, Chen Wenzhe has purchased a lot of gems in South Vietnam.
He doesn't have jade in his hand now, but he has emerald.
For Chen Wenzhe, it is easy to find a piece of white and transparent jadeite.
As for the quality, it must be above the ice type, and only jade of this grade can match his current craftsmanship.
It seems that there is no difficulty in carving deer and crane on a pen holder.
"Deer" and "Liu" are homophonic, and "Crane" and "He" are homophonic, forming "Liu and Spring".
Therefore, cranes and deer come together in spring, which always entrusts people with the beautiful vision of peace and prosperity for the country and the people, longevity and happiness.
The image of "Crane and Deer Spring Together" appeared in the Ming Dynasty, but the earliest form of expression is not what we see today.
In the Ming Dynasty, it was represented by six cranes. It was not until the late Ming Dynasty that the twin beasts of crane and deer were derived.
The white jade Crane and Deer Tongchun pen holder from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty is currently the largest jade pen holder in the hands of a private collector.
It turned out to be the old collection of Jin Congyi, a famous antique dealer in Xiangjiang, and was later transferred to the collection of Ernst Weiou in Vienna.
In the 2007 Christie's Autumn Auction in Hong Kong, it was sold for a sky-high price of HK$54.0875 million.
This auction was more than 5 times higher than the estimated price, making it the third highest auction price for a pen holder made of all materials over the years, and it still cannot be shaken.
This is also the most expensive auction item with the image of a deer so far.
The walls of the vessel are carved with evergreen pine trees, plus chimes, peaches, fairy mushrooms, old people and children, which sound like "Qing". A festive and auspicious birthday fairyland is presented on this rare pen holder.
Such a pen holder, layout, and artistry are the most important, and of course, carving.
The reason why Chen Wenzhe carved such a pen holder must be because he had planned everything.
For him, there is no technical difficulty and it is naturally easy to make.
The jade he found was not small. After taking out a few pairs of jade bracelets according to the size, the jade tube left behind was just the right size to carve a pen holder.
In this way, you will get several pairs of transparent white jade bracelets and several pen holders.
Because after taking out the jade bracelet, there is still a jade core inside. If you continue to take out this jade bracelet, you will find another pen holder.
The pen holders happen to be one large and one small, because Chen Wenzhe knows that there is a larger and famous pen holder.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a white jade pen holder that is only one centimeter larger than the previous white jade pen holder.
Making this kind of thing is very fast because it does not require complicated processes and does not require multiple firings in the kiln.
It only took Chen Wenzhe more than two hours to make a pair of bottle pen holders.
The main thing is that the deer has been imprinted in his heart because of making porcelain, which makes his carving as easy as flowing clouds and flowing water.
Although he has this level of skill, he only occasionally makes a few pieces of jade carving, not many.
Recently, he is still mainly making porcelain, because it is different for him, especially since there are so many porcelains he wants to make now.
For example, when he was working on the theme of deer and crane coming together in spring, he couldn't help but think of such a bile bottle.
It was a Qing Qianlong blue and white Crane and Deer Tongchun vase that was auctioned by Shendu Poly in December 2010.
This bile-type bottle was sold for 15.12 million yuan, which is the highest price so far for a bile-type bottle of all materials and themes.
The body of the vessel is painted with blue and white paintings of "Liuhe Spring Picture", so this is another example of a famous painting being copied on famous porcelain.
Emperor Qianlong admired the elegant shape of the bile vase. He wrote poems in praise of it many times, and explained in the poem's notes: "Both the bile vase and the paper mallet vase are the best types of bottles."
"Liuhe Spring Picture" was very popular among the blue and white porcelain of folk kilns during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
However, as a decorative theme for imperial porcelain in the Qing Dynasty, it was extremely rare in the three dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong.
After reviewing the information I have seen so far, I have not found any similar artifacts.
It’s just that lot 2830 at the 2008 Spring Auction of Suzhou Fubei in Hong Kong was similar to it.
It is a "Qianlong blue and white olive vase with 'Songshi Deer' painting", which can only be said to be similar to it, and the auspicious deer, stacked stones, branches and so on are painted by one person.
This bottle was sold for HK$11,527,500 at that time, which can be said to be of great value!
There are easily tens of millions of pieces of porcelain, and every piece is a treasure and an art treasure.
Chen Wenzhe would never touch such porcelain before.
However, now that he has even made a picture of a hundred deer, his confidence is getting stronger and stronger.
"Now that I've done it, I think I'll even imitate the famous blue and white Longevity Pattern Zun!"
It is not difficult to make blue and white flowers. What is difficult is to depict ten thousand longevity characters in different fonts on one piece.
In the past, Chen Wenzhe received a picture of a hundred years of longevity, but now he has to write the words "ten thousand years of longevity" on blue and white porcelain. This job is really not easy.
It can be said that there is no comparability between the two. How can a hundred longevity pictures, that is, a hundred longevity characters in different fonts, be compared with ten thousand different longevity characters?
Recently, Chen Wenzhe has gained confidence in his calligraphy. Otherwise, he would never do such a self-humiliating thing.
The Qing Kangxi blue and white "Longevity" pattern statue that Chen Wenzhe wanted to imitate is now collected in the Jinling Museum. Even among such a large museum as the Jinling Museum, it is a real treasure.
First of all, explain why it is called Da Zun, because its diameter reaches 38 cm, the bottom diameter is 28 cm, and the height is 77 cm.
The mouth of this statue is slightly slanted, with square lips, the outside of the lips is nearly straight, the neck is short, the shoulders are tapered inward, the feet are round and convex, and the bottom is sandy.
There are two seams on the body of the vessel, and the body is thick.
The outside of the vessel is glazed to the bottom, and the inside of the vessel is fully glazed.
The most important thing is that it is covered with 10,000 non-repeating compiled Chinese characters "Shou" written in blue and white glaze.
This type of statue was produced by Jingzhen Imperial Kiln Factory to celebrate the 60th birthday of Emperor Kangxi, symbolizing longevity and boundless longevity.
The whole body of this kind of statue is painted with the character "Shou", and the upper edge of the mouth is two weeks long, with 77 characters for each week;
There are 48 characters per week on the side edge of the mouth and the outer edge of the circle foot; there are 75 vertical rows and 130 horizontal rows on the body of the vessel, a total of 10,000 characters.
The size of the characters expands and contracts according to the shape and curve of the object, which is regular and natural, artificial and charming.
Forget about collecting such a national treasure because the price is too high.
In other words, even if someone sells it, few people can afford it.
Of course, Chen Wenzhe can afford it, but there is only one such thing in the world, so it is impossible to buy it!
Such a piece of porcelain seems to be very simple, because it has no other complicated decorations, only the densely packed characters "longevity" on it.
Doesn’t it seem very simple when you look at it like this? It’s not simple!
Only when you actually start making it yourself will you realize that there are really too many pitfalls.
First of all, firing such a huge vessel requires superb porcelain firing techniques;
Such a bright blue and white hair color requires the finest blue and white materials to depict;
To express such a complex and colorful variation of the character "Shou" requires a strong foundation in writing;
Such an extraordinary overall planning further demonstrated the power of the feudal emperor and the respect of his ministers.