Chapter seven hundred and seventy-two lunch boxes with inscriptions
No matter how beautiful the bronzes on this stall are, they are still made.
So many fake bronzes appeared at once. This boss doesn't look like a good person and is difficult to deal with!
However, it is difficult to deal with, but it has to be dealt with, because Chen Wenzhe has taken a fancy to some things in his stall, and I am afraid that the value of those things is much higher than the copper dove cart.
If there is something more conspicuous in this stall, it is some broken bronze wares, the rust color of which is more natural.
What caught Chen Wenzhe's attention, apart from the three bronze dove carts, were obviously the broken-looking bronze vessels.
After taking a closer look, he didn't expect that he actually saw several other items with a relatively good rust color, especially two of them. No, it seemed to be one piece, right?
It was a copper vessel like a lunch box, and the piece placed on the other side should be its lid. However, the lid was severely deformed.
Of course, the lunch box was not well preserved either.
In addition to being covered with red spots and green embroidery, its appearance is also a bit distorted.
Therefore, if you are not a professional, you will definitely not be able to tell that it should be the same as the one next to it.
A lunch box with a lid, the shape is very simple, but the patina is very pleasing to look at.
Recently, I have studied a lot of bronzes, so Chen Wenzhe cannot say that he can tell the layered patina at a glance, but it is almost the same.
Most ancient bronzes have been buried underground for a long time. Due to the influence of the underground environment, they have suffered varying degrees of corrosion.
The rust on copperware is formed over many years and is generally relatively hard.
They are formed in copper, just like mineral deposits. They grow out layer by layer, bit by bit. They are strong and dense and not easy to peel off.
Counterfeit copperware must be camouflaged with patina, and its surface must also undergo various camouflage treatments.
But no matter how disguised it is, the fake can never become real. Observing the surface and rust spots of copperware is the key to identifying fakes.
The most important thing is that the patina of this simple bronze vessel has fallen off.
Chen Wenzhe could tell that no one would imitate such a simple shape of the lunch box, and the patina of the lunch box would not be imitated by ordinary people.
Even if it is transplanted rust, it will definitely be exposed during the process of deformation of the bronze in front of you.
So, the two-piece set is actually the real thing.
If there were just two ancient bronze vessels that were simple in shape, squeezed, and distorted, it would naturally be impossible to draw Chen Wenzhe's attention away from the three bronze dove carts.
Because he actually saw words on the twisted lunch box, from a place where rust had fallen off.
Aren’t the words on bronze vessels just inscriptions?
The price of bronze ware mainly depends on who uses it and whether it has any inscriptions!
The ones used by the royal family are different from those used by princes and kings, and the ones used by princes and kings are also different from those used by scholar-bureaucrats.
There is also a difference between those with inscriptions and those without inscriptions. The difference is the price, and the price difference ranges from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions.
Also, collecting bronzes does not depend on their size, but mainly on whether they have research value, historical value, and collection value.
The one in front of me was obviously there, because Chen Wenzhe happened to recognize the two exposed words.
Having said so much, in fact, the key to collecting bronzes lies in whether there are inscriptions on them.
Even if it is a small miscellaneous item, having an inscription will increase its value dramatically.
For example, a bronze vessel on display at the Poly Museum is very small, only as big as the palm of an adult man's hand, and the lid is also missing.
But this small bronze vessel is of great significance!
Why? Because there is an inscription in the center of this bronze vessel.
After asking a large number of experts to interpret it, they found that the inscription was written by a descendant of Dayu, clearly recording the history of Dayu's flood control for the people.
This bronze was originally purchased from the Xiangjiang market. The price was not high at that time, but now the bronze can only be described as unparalleled and unparalleled in the world.
Thinking of that bronze vessel, doesn't it look like a lunch box?
But why does the powdery green rust on this thing look like harmful rust?
Thinking of this, Chen Wenzhe, who was about to leave, stopped.
If it was really Bronze Disease, there was no way he could delay time.
Chen Wenzhe sighed helplessly, but he turned around and picked up a bronze two-wheeled dove cart from the stall and looked at it carefully.
This is definitely a toy car, and it is a bronze dove car from the Han Dynasty. The layer of bronze on its surface is the artificial patina.
It must be erythema in the first place, and as long as erythema occurs, it will last forever.
It takes at least hundreds of years for this phenomenon to occur, and the environment must be oxygen-deficient for this phenomenon to form.
After careful inspection, Chen Wenzhe found that there was not much green rust on this piece, and almost the whole body was covered with red spots.
Needless to say, it will definitely stay in a closed environment for a long time.
Coupled with the comparison of the vessel types, it must be a bronze vessel from the Han Dynasty.
In fact, this kind of thing is easy to identify. As long as there are no signs of wear and tear, the dove carts of the Han Dynasty generally look like a big bird carrying a small bird on its back. There are two wheels on both sides of the bird, and there are holes in the front for fastening.
rope.
The dove carts of the Six Dynasties period consisted of a large bird carrying two small birds one behind the other. There was a small wheel behind the bird's tail, which made it more stable overall.
Looking at the bronze dove cart in my hand, it is 12 cm long, 5.5 cm wide and 15 cm high.
During archaeological excavations, many real objects of dove carts have been discovered. The material is mainly bronze, and some are made of pottery.
The unearthed dove carts span from the Han Dynasty to the Western Jin Dynasty, indicating that dove cart toys were more popular during this period.
When playing with the dove car, you need to pass a string through the small hole on the chest of the dove car, and pull the string to drive the dove car forward.
If you pull hard, the tail of the dove car will tilt up;
If you pull it gently, the rear end of the dove car will always stick to the ground.
Depending on the amount of force exerted, the dove car can imitate the different forms of a dove bird when flying and walking.
After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, dove carts were no longer popular, but they have always been synonymous with children's games.
In the ancient people's perception, the dove is a rather magical bird.
In the Han Dynasty, people over seventy years old were awarded dove sticks.
For example, "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Etiquette Chronicles" says: "When a person reaches his seventieth year, he is given a king's staff and fed with rice porridge. At eighty and ninety, there are additional gifts. The king's staff is nine feet long and decorated with a dove.
The dove is a bird that does not choke, and wants the old man not to choke."
The dove also represents filial piety. "Mao Shi" also said, "The dove raises its son from top to bottom in the morning, and from bottom to top in the evening." This reflects the affection of the dove when raising its son.
Therefore, the ancients made a dove cart toy with a big bird carrying a small bird on its back, so that children can experience the virtue of respecting the elderly and loving the young represented by the dove bird during play.