Chapter 1,192: Sky-high price as soon as it appears
You know, that was in 2002, more than twenty years ago now.
At that time, a small bowl could be sold for more than 10 million, so how much can it be sold now?
This kind of thing is not accidental. In the 2016 Shendu International Spring Auction, a Ding kiln black-glazed flower-mouthed vase was sold for 12.3941 million yuan.
匜 (yi) is an ancient toilet (guan) utensil, shaped like a ladle, used together with a plate. The 匜 is used to pour water, and the plate is used to receive it.
The shape of this black glaze flower mouth is actually a lamp. Of course, it is a deformer of the lamp. Even if it is slightly deformed, the structure of the lamp can still be seen.
Of course, it looks more like 匜, so it’s called Huakou 匜.
It is not uncommon for unique Ding kiln black-glazed porcelains like this to have transaction records worth tens of millions.
From this we can also see how high the quality of the exquisite black glaze of Ding kiln is!
Or let’s talk about this Huakou Ni, which is 7.5cm high and 25cm in diameter.
The open mouth is slightly tilted, in the shape of a six-petal lotus, with the oblique abdomen drawn in and shallow circle feet.
The edge on one side of the mouth of the lamp is arched and turned into a handle, which is plain and without lines.
The whole body is covered with black glaze, the glaze color is like ink and lacquer, rich and deep.
The fetus is exposed near the foot, and the hard and delicate white fetal bones can be seen.
The glaze color is the most beautiful among black glazes, with stable and deep color.
The interior of the glaze is shining like a starry sky, and the crystals are dark yellow-brown.
From a distance, the mountains and dew are not visible, but are hidden deep in the black glaze.
The tire wall is thin and firm, the glaze does not reach the bottom, the foot is cut flat, and the blade is sharp and does not smudge, which is a typical feature of Heiding in the Song Dynasty.
This black-glazed flower-mouthed vase is unique and extremely rare in terms of its glaze color, texture, shape, artistic level, and scientific value.
In fact, whether a piece of porcelain is good or not depends on the first impression you get when you take a look at it.
Ding kiln black glaze, you don’t need to see the actual thing, just look at the picture, just a glance, it will impress you deeply.
Because that kind of black glaze color is really unforgettable.
Of course, the Ding kiln black glaze of the Song Dynasty was not only high-quality, but even defective products were of high value.
The black glaze of the Song Dynasty was divided into three grades!
To be more precise, Heiding in the Song Dynasty can be divided into three grades based on the glaze surface.
The first-grade glaze is dark and shiny, and the light can be used to identify people.
As Cao Zhao said in "Essentials of Gegu", "the ink makes the color as black as lacquer".
This type of porcelain can only be observed through the remaining fragments. You will see that its texture is white, the degree of porcelain is high, there are few pores in the cross section, and the sintering temperature is relatively high.
The second-grade glaze has a black and translucent yellow-brown surface, the body texture has an average degree of porcelain, the cross-section is not very smooth, and the pores are visible.
The third-grade glaze has a "kiln-changed" color, or has short silver rabbit hairs, or silver round oil droplets the size of a pen tip, or is like the brown rabbit hairs of a kiln, with brown waves gushing out from the black.
Rabbit hair.
But the overall theme is still black, and it is also classified as black.
Good-quality Ding kiln, or Ding kiln black-glazed porcelain, will cause a sensation as long as it appears.
To be honest, black is definitely rare, and its price will be astronomical once it appears.
Black Ding porcelain has been a very precious variety since ancient times, and its value is also higher than that of Baiding porcelain.
There are even fewer complete copies handed down from generation to generation, and apart from the collections of major museums, very few of them have been seen in the world, which further increases its value.
For example, the "Northern Song Dynasty Ding Kiln Black Glaze Partridge Spotted Bowl" auctioned in 2002 was sold for 13.14 million yuan.
This price was still in the early years, but now it is almost comparable to the "Northern Song Dynasty Ding kiln carved eight-sided bowl" that was sold for 146 million in Hong Kong and Jiangsu in 2014.
By the way, this big bowl is made of white-glazed porcelain, not black-glazed porcelain.
Over the years since then, it has been rare to see auction records for black Ding porcelain from the Song Dynasty that can surpass that of this large white-glazed bowl.
Of course, this does not mean that Ding kiln black glaze is inferior to white glaze, nor can it be said that Ding kiln white glaze is worse than Ding kiln black glaze.
The main reason is that Ding kiln white-glazed porcelain is fired a lot, so it is difficult to guarantee the quality.
However, it is precisely because Ding kiln fired more white-glazed porcelain, so as long as you are serious and use more skillful craftsmanship, it will definitely be easier to produce high-quality products.
Because I am familiar with it, it is only natural that some extremely valuable treasures should appear.
On the contrary, it is Ding kiln black glaze. Because of its small production and high quality, it is rare and valuable.
To sum up, all Ding kiln wares are elegant and refined, with bright and lovely colors. They have been among the famous porcelains since ancient times.
Therefore, in recent years, Ding kiln has become the most shining porcelain art category in the collection market.
Whether in the domestic or international market, its prices are showing a strong upward trend, and sky-high prices are frequently achieved at auctions.
You know, these black-glazed porcelains from Ding kiln are not very big.
For example, at Christie's Xiangjiang auction in 2019, a black-glazed brown-spotted folded-waist plate from the Ding kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty was sold for 10.2 million yuan.
The black glaze on this lot is smooth, the base of the ring is exposed, the porcelain body is strong and thin, the walls are thin and the body is light. It has the characteristics of typical Ding kiln black glaze wares.
Most of the Ding kiln white glazed wares are over-fired, with the base fully glazed. On the contrary, the black Ding kiln wares are mainly fired upwards, with no glaze applied along the base, exposing the hard, fine white soil.
Like the Ding kiln white glaze ware, the black Ding ware has extremely thin walls and is light to handle.
"Heiding" wares are very rare, even more rare than imperial Ru kiln and official kiln wares.
Therefore, these dishes and dishes, which cannot be sold at high prices in the antique market, can often fetch sky-high prices as soon as they are released.
You know, the Ding kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty can also be regarded as high ancient porcelain, right?
It seems that except for works from the five famous kilns of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is difficult for other high-end ancient porcelain to fetch tens of millions of dollars.
But the porcelain of Ding kiln is different. Whether it is black glaze or white glaze, as long as it appears, there is no price below one million.
It is usually four to five million, six to seven million, and if the quality is slightly better, it will exceed ten million.
If the device were slightly larger, it would not be surprising at all to fetch hundreds of millions of dollars at auction.
Chen Wenzhe must be very motivated to imitate such porcelain.
Chen Wenzhe is already very experienced in imitating antique porcelain, but there are still some specialties in imitating Ding kiln porcelain.
Because it existed in the Tang Dynasty, you can imitate the Ding Kiln of the Tang Dynasty or the Ding Kiln of the Song Dynasty.
Later, there were Liao, Jin, Yuan, etc. In these periods, there were Ding kiln products, or imitations of Ding kiln.
Now Chen Wenzhe is in the learning stage. As long as he wants to learn the technology, he will learn it completely from beginning to end.
According to the previous learning routine, the first thing to imitate must be the shape of the instrument.
If you want to imitate well, you must first understand its shape, and the shape of the Ding kiln is particularly important.
Because Ding kiln has a rich variety of shapes, such as plates, bowls, lamps, stoves, boxes, bottles, pillows, musical instruments, etc., almost everything you need.
Among them, plates and bowls have the largest production volume.
About 80% of the porcelain pieces left at the kiln site are plates and bowls.
Some of the plates and bowls are larger in size, such as bowls with a diameter of nearly 30 centimeters, which are rare in other kilns.