Holding the stone frog, Chen Wenzhe couldn't put it down and looked at it. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it.
Although this thing looks simple, it should be a jade product. If it is a real stone frog from the Shang Dynasty, its value will be very high.
If you don't tell it, ordinary people can't guess its price even if they guess in the sky.
Chen Wenzhe knew that such a stone frog was auctioned for 28.8 million at Fubi in Jiangsu, Hong Kong.
A seemingly ordinary stone frog from the Shang Dynasty was sold for 28.8 million yuan. For a time, the collection circle stirred up a stir!
Many people think that the buyer is a fool who spent more than 20 million yuan to buy a stone!
So is this buyer stupid? Of course he is not stupid!
"You will never guess how I got it."
Seeing Cao Qingchun's proud eyes, Chen Wenzhe blurted out: "It couldn't have been taken through an online platform, right?"
"Fuck, you can guess this?" Cao Qingchun was really shocked this time.
Chen Wenzhe was even more shocked: "Really?"
He just looked at Cao Qingchun's proud look, and then thought about unreliable sources of antiques that could make him proud.
Where are the online platforms that are even more unreliable?
If you can buy real antiques on real toys, many people would want to eat them directly.
But is Cao Qingchun really so lucky?
Not to mention buying a Shang Dynasty stone frog online, even if you buy one at a world-class auction house, it can cause an uproar. There is a reason for this.
A Shang Dynasty stone frog sold for 28.8 million by a formal auction organization in Xiangjiang also vividly interprets the saying "one stone stirs up a thousand waves".
And it has also triggered heated debates in the collecting community.
One of the most logical and self-consistent views is that the value of cultural relics has nothing to do with their material.
Didn't Xu Shen also say? "The beauty of stone is jade."
So there is nothing extraordinary about Hetian jade, it is just a good-looking stone.
Other beautiful stones can replace it, and this small stone frog sold for nearly 30 million is proof!
Those who hold this attitude are mostly impetuous and impatient people who are not deeply rooted.
Their understanding of "Shuowen Jiezi" mostly comes from out-of-context quotes on the Internet.
Why not look at the suffix "it has five virtues" in the original text?
If restricted by these jade virtues, all "beautiful stones", including nephrite from other producing areas, can only be called "stones that resemble jade" in the understanding of the ancients.
As for the small stone frog sold at a high price, it just proves the truth that Hetian jade is currently seriously underestimated.
Please note that Chen Wenzhe's point of view here is not to simply suppress the "stone" and promote the "jade" that he admires.
He has always believed that the value of a collection can be divided into two parts: material and spiritual.
And these two, just like the human body and soul, complement each other and are indispensable.
Specific to this marble frog, it is reflected in the organic combination of cheap materials, long history, exquisite art, and profound cultural value. This is the fundamental reason why it can be sold at a high price.
Similar to the situation, in 2007, a stone lion from the Mesopotamian civilization was sold for a high price of 470 million yuan.
This stone carving, named the Gurnot Lioness, is considered the most expensive stone carving in the world.
The astronomical price of US$57.2 million was sold that year, which clearly shows the high status of spiritual civilization value among these collections.
So the question is, why did a foreign stone sculpture sell for 470 million, while a domestic stone frog from the Shang Dynasty only sold for 28 million?
This is not even a fraction of other people's. In fact, it also depends on the comprehensive national strength of a country.
In the final analysis, it is still a manifestation of our country's weak national strength and lack of people's self-confidence.
Marble statues like this are not uncommon in China. For example, several pieces have been unearthed from the Yin Ruins.
For example, there are stone tiger architectural stone carvings in Tomb No. 1001 in the northwest hillock of Yin Ruins, as well as standing carvings in the shape of a tiger's head, human body, and tiger claws, and a standing carving in the shape of a marble owl.
There are many stone carvings in the Yin Ruins. Of course, the value of these cannot be discussed because they are impossible to appear on the market.
However, compared with other antiques, such as calligraphy and painting, the material support is just paper, ink and paint.
The essence of porcelain is nothing more than mineral powder. The reason why their prices can reach new highs is mainly due to the humanistic value attached to them.
So is a beautiful stone more valuable than all beautiful jade?
Chen Wenzhe still didn't dare to admit it, nor would he deduce the strange theory that "jade is not as good as stone".
Because most of them have not studied, in the Neolithic period, jade and stone coexisted in the stage of human civilization, and there was obviously a huge level gap between the two.
For example, in the excavations of Shijiahe, Songze, Dadianzi and other sites, we have seen that in high-level tombs with many unearthed cultural relics, there are more jade and less stone, and the amount of work and exquisiteness of the jade is
They are far superior to stone tools of the same era.
In low-level tombs, there are only a small number of stone tools.
214 pieces of jade and 98 pieces of stone tools were unearthed in Lingjiatan 07M23. In many small tombs, only one or two stone tools were unearthed.
Just think about this stone frog. If there is a Hetian jade from a similar era and similar craftsmanship, which one is of the same model, then which one of them is worth more?
What's more, the material of jade is even rarer and more difficult to process.
It can also better reflect key information such as the development level of productivity and cultural aesthetics at that time.
These are enough to prove the important position Hetian jade occupies in our historical research.
But there is another problem hidden under these appearances, that is, in many cases, the raw materials are too expensive, which will blind people's eyes and cover up the higher-level spiritual and cultural value of the collection.
For example, there have been countless tragedies among the people where unearthed gold and silverware from the Tang Dynasty were smelted to make gold bracelets.
This kind of deformed values, reflected in Hetian jade, is the current "Kanwan" phenomenon.
If you completely understand it as a stone that can be used to exchange money, you will have no time to take into account the "soft values" such as history, art, and culture condensed on it.
Such self-righteous price-gouging is actually a self-deprecating behavior of a money-mad person.
Imagine that in Grandet's eyes, the gold coins in his hand were simply gold.
With his short-sightedness, how could he consider whether it was a relic from the Alexander era?
But now, deep down in the heart of the "Qian Chuan Zi" who spends his days promoting sky-high prices and selling for over ten thousand yuan, what is Hetian jade?
It's just a money-making tool they use to harvest enthusiasts.
How can these people care about the essence of traditional culture that is naturally revealed in its texture, shape, and craftsmanship?
To sum up, the warm and elegant material of Hetian jade helps it capture thousands of interesting souls.
But this double-edged sword also delays it from showing the cultural value it carries.