Chapter 1800: Inheriting ancient methods and producing bronze mirrors
The bronze mirrors of the Song and Jin Dynasties are rough, the patterns are molded, the lines are rough, and they look dull. The imitation mirror patterns of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are far less refined than those of the Tang Dynasty, and not as good as those of the Song Dynasty mirrors.
This time, Chen Wenzhe really saw various ancient bronze bottle mirrors. In addition to the sea animal grape mirror, there was also the "Luo Family Mirror" patterned mirror with mythical animals.
This kind of mirror has a diameter of 23.5 centimeters and a weight of 1694g. The original transaction price is 8.28 million.
There is also the "Huainan Qizhao" mythical beast mirror, with a diameter of 25 centimeters and a transaction price of 5.63 million.
At a lower price, there is a double parrot holding a ribbon mirror with a diameter of 30.6 centimeters, a thickness of 0.8 centimeters, a weight of 3643g, and a transaction price of 5.06 million.
Bronze mirrors like this worth millions have become common in recent years.
Some of these masterpieces are also hidden in museums.
In fact, many good things, whether domestic or foreign, are mostly hidden in museums, and not many are hidden in private hands.
Because at any time, private power is not as powerful as the country.
Of course, what Chen Wenzhe is talking about this time is definitely not the imitations in the fake village, but the real treasures.
For young people, any handicraft work is hard work and requires many years of patience and experience.
The utensils fired in this way can be completely dehydrated and burned well.
Based on the bronze mirrors from the Warring States Period to the Tang Dynasty unearthed in ez, it was made through fourteen processes including mirror making, casting, scraping, grinding, polishing, and consecration (using tin amalgam).
In the Prince Consort's tomb, not only were emperors buried, but a mirror was also found, which was also something that was "forbidden to go abroad" for the exhibition.
The answer to that question is naturally very few, but if it is definitely answered by archaeological experts, it will mainly be reflected in a "mirror";
Therefore, I have no idea now. I would like to set up a handicraft school specifically to recruit uninterested students and train them in general. That would be considered as making some contribution to the inheritance of the country's top craftsmanship, right?
The goal of very few veteran craftsmen today is to find and train successors to the previous generation.
As for Chen Wenzhe, I dare to say that my predecessors were willing to inherit the skills in my hands.
The ancient method of casting mirrors is called the "Fan casting method".
But if there is no cold love from the heart, it is difficult to persist.
Besides, the various top-level inheritances I have collected now are really too few. If my former descendants are willing to learn, how much less can they learn?
Every step is handmade, from loess processing to raw material ratio, every detail is inherited from ancient times.
Now Chen Wenzhe has seen a lot of bronze mirrors, but if he wants to repair various bronze mirrors, he still needs to learn from some museums.
For example, the ez Museum in Beihu not only collects them, but also studies the restoration and imitation of bronze mirrors.
Even in the winter of greatness, the chance of successfully producing a completely damaged bronze mirror is only 60%.
That unique design was named the blasted down-flame kiln and was granted a national patent.
Of course, there is no innovation in inheriting ancient methods.
Unfortunately, there are very few bad craftsmen, they are all poor people.
Therefore, that mirror only demonstrates the "superior" skills of the ancients. It itself is also listed as a national treasure-level cultural relic that is "prohibited for overseas exhibitions." It includes mold making, clay model modeling, clay model roasting, and alloy preparation.
And smelting and casting, pre-casting processing, light transmission, etc.
No, we have previously restored and copied over 600 varieties of bronze mirrors.
Therefore, few families will inherit the skills of their fathers because we are too interested.
ez, never known as the "Hometown of Ancient Bronze Mirrors", was one of the "Seven Small Bronze Mirror Casting Centers in the Country" along with Yangluo, Shaoxing (ancient Kuaiji) and Xucheng in ancient times.
If it is not scraped before and after, it will undergo cold treatment.
Bronze mirrors are a piece of craftsmanship, but after repeated experiments and exploration by teenagers, there were only a few staff in the museum, and they gradually learned how to make them.
At the same time, vassal states with few powerful people emerged, among which "Qi" was not the representative of the weak;
That means that no one wants to learn those crafts, but those who want to learn are able to learn, and those outside the family who want to learn work hard to let us learn.
Now, on the first floor of the exhibition hall of Beihu Ez City Museum, there are several kinds of bronze mirror gifts with pattern structures, neatly placed on gift racks.
We used the unearthed artifacts after the Tang Dynasty as a template and conducted research and experiments based on ancient books and documents.
Of course, it's still early to say that. At the very least, I need to get some inheritance before I can talk about it.
Among those people's thoughts, the first thing that came to mind was if they wanted to pass on their skills to their sons.
If you want to learn the top inheritance, you have to take a look at the top handicrafts.
Today's bronze mirrors are produced using a combination of ancient bronze mirror craftsmanship and modern technology.
And that "mirror" is the smallest bronze mirror in the world so far.
A blower is used to force the flame to "retreat downward" in the kiln.
Therefore, there are very few experienced craftsmen in modern times, and they are all trying to find successors.
Therefore, craftsmen cast bronze mirrors especially in hot seasons and process the blanks in summer.
For example, there are many obscure bronze mirrors found in China.
Modern production of bronze mirrors uses modern refractory brick kilns, with the annealing port set at the lower part of the kiln and the fire outlet at the bottom of the kiln.
That method is to first use clay to shape a model, and then sculpt various patterns, patterns or words on the back of the mirror.
In addition to private collections of ancient bronze mirrors, the ez Museum collection alone has more than 3,000 pieces, covering various dynasties from the Warring States Period to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
It's a pity that the technology that future generations have worked hard to re-research has now become a problem again.
Its small and large shape, radius of curvature, and production process look very rough and exquisite.
Speaking of the "Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period", few friends know that this was a war-torn era, with constant disputes among various princes.
Because of the cold weather, the copper raw materials will be controlled and deformed outside the mold.
The relatively unknown one that Chen Wenzhe knew about was a bronze mirror unearthed from the "Prince Consort's Tomb".
With a family like that, can our children and grandchildren endure this hardship?
Of course, the process is very complicated, because the production of a bronze mirror requires mastering 18 processes of bronze casting.
In particular, they are all 1:1, restoring the ancient craftsmanship and raw material ratio.
Just like a bronze mirror, what is said next is not everything.
Before it dries in the shade, it is fired into a master mold, and then the master mold is used to make a clay mold. It is also dried and fired in the shade, and then the alloy is melted and cast outside the mold to form the device.
In 1995, ez established the Museum Cultural Relics Restoration and Reproduction Research Institute to carry out research on the craftsmanship of ancient bronze mirrors, bronze pots, tripods, statues and other bronze ware, and took a step back to improve the production process of bronze mirrors.
Perhaps no friend will ask, how weak can Qi be after two thousand years?
These mirrors include lifelike dragons, tigers, unicorns, dancing phoenixes and redbirds, vivid and mysterious animals, and graceful flowers and plants...