The root carving in Zhuang Rui's hand is black and purple in color with an oily sheen. It is a seated statue of Maitreya Buddha. Although it is only the size of a palm, it is extremely heavy. However, it is covered with dirt and oil. Even the face of Maitreya Buddha
, are somewhat unclear.
Zhuang Rui saw the stall owner handing back the five hundred yuan to the foreigner, so he said to him: "Brother, can you let me take a closer look at this object of yours?"
"Brother, look, I'm going to thank you today. If you like this carving, I'll give it to you."
This young stall owner was indescribably grateful to Zhuang Rui. If Zhuang Rui hadn't been able to talk directly to foreigners, I'm afraid all of them would have been kept in the dark by this Japanese translator.
"Haha, there's no need to give it away. I'll take a look first. If you like it, I'll buy it from you."
Zhuang Rui replied with a smile and began to look at the Maitreya Buddha root carving in his hand.
Zhuang Rui wiped the face of Maitreya Buddha vigorously with his thumb several times. Although he could not wipe off all the oil stains on it, his face could be vaguely seen. This Maitreya Buddha statue has a wide forehead, slightly closed eyes, and a smile.
His mouth was half open, his two big ears hung down to his shoulders, his chest was exposed, his legs were crossed, his arms were bent, and he was sitting leaning against a cloth bag, with his right hand on his knees, showing a carefree and happy-go-lucky expression.
From the carving point of view, this work is carefully carved, the knife skills are skillful, and the entire line is naturally smooth. If this carving is really the work of the stall owner’s ancestor, his ancestor must also be a skilled artist, even if Zhuang Rui does not know how to appreciate this kind of work.
It was obvious that this was a rare masterpiece, but he didn't know why the stall owner charged such a low price and sold it for only 500 yuan.
"Huh!"
Just when Zhuang Rui turned the root carving over and looked at it, his heart couldn't help but beat faster, because he found that the patterns and stripes of the root carving revealed a luster, and the growth ring patterns were like threads, so subtle that they were almost invisible.
And there is not a single scar on it. You know, most tree roots are full of scars. It seems that only rosewood has this look.
Seeing this, Zhuang Rui looked at the entire root sculpture again, but the more he looked at it, the more it looked like it was carved from red sandalwood, with a purple-black tone and a deep and elegant shape, especially when he put the root sculpture to his nose and smelled it.
, that faint fragrance made Zhuang Rui firm up his judgment. This Maitreya Buddha root carving is not only made of rosewood, but also an old object of some age.
In fact, it’s not surprising that Zhuang Rui didn’t notice it at first, because red sandalwood is divided into two types, namely large-leaf red sandalwood and small-leaf red sandalwood. The band-like stripes on the string section of large-leaf red sandalwood are obvious and wide, and the color is purple-brown.
The furniture Zhuang Rui saw in Song Jun's villa was all made of big-leaf red sandalwood.
However, the wood grain on the surface of lobular red sandalwood is not obvious. The color is orange-red at first, and becomes dark purple like paint over time. The growth ring pattern is almost invisible. The vein pattern is extremely fine and twisted like ox hair. Its price is
It is four or five times higher than the large-leaf red sandalwood. There are very few of this kind of red sandalwood, and there are very few large pieces. Most of the ones handed down are some play objects. The one Zhuang Rui encountered was carved from the root of the small-leaf red sandalwood.
Made.
After confirming that this was a red sandalwood root carving, Zhuang Rui was ready to look at it again with the aura in his eyes. The reason why Zhuang Rui had not used the aura in his eyes to look at this object before was because he wanted to gain some experience. In the antique business, you need to see more and get better at it.
For example, if you stay in the Palace Museum for decades and face those old objects that have been accumulated by history every day, and then go to Panjiayuan to look at those fake objects, I am afraid you will be able to feel the authenticity as soon as you get started.
It is the accumulation of experience.
But at this moment, Zhuang Rui had already given the answer in his heart, so he needed the aura in his eyes to make an appraisal. He lowered his head slightly, and a piece of orange flashed in front of his eyes. The aura in his eyes had already touched the root carving in his hand. The surface of the root carving was in Zhuang Rui's eyes.
In his eyes, it decomposed rapidly as if it had turned into mist. Although the spiritual energy entered the root carving and stopped after about one centimeter, the fiber structure inside the root carving was still presented in front of Zhuang Rui's eyes.
The fibrous tissue inside the root carving is very fine, like layers of waves, and each fiber tube hole is winding and dense, with extremely fine veins and twisted wires like ox hair. This is all red sandalwood.
Its unique characteristics were introduced to Zhuang Rui when he was at Song Jun's villa.
But what surprised him the most at this moment was that an aura that was almost as strong as that of the Holy couplet quickly merged with the aura in his eyes. This aura was far better than what he had in the Grasshopper Gourd, and those few pictures.
The spiritual energy absorbed into the huanghuali chair was many times thicker. This also made Zhuang Rui a little confused. Could it be that his previous judgment that the amount of spiritual energy in wooden antiques was small was wrong?
Zhuang Rui shook his head and put all those thoughts behind him. Now was not the time to delve into this issue. After judging from the aura in his eyes that it was an antique, the weight of the red sandalwood Maitreya Buddha in his hand seemed to have increased a bit.
, Zhuang Rui knows that rosewood is known as "inches of gold", especially old items with inheritance, plus its own historical value, the price is even more expensive. The market price of this item in front of me is probably
Far higher than the Grasshopper Gourd of Sanhe Liu.
Zhuang Rui looked up and saw the Japanese translator lying on the table writing what happened. Director Wang was gesticulating and gesticulating to communicate with the two foreigners, so he gently pulled the stall owner and asked: "
Brother, I think your statue is very good, why did you sell it for only five hundred yuan?"
After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, the young man had a look of helplessness on his face and said: "There are stalls selling root carvings and other small things in this market. It is an exaggeration to say that there are 100 stalls, but there are always thirty or fifty.
, there are so many stalls, the prices are too high and no one will buy them.”
"There are still so many craftsmen now?"
Zhuang Rui was surprised. Carving is a very delicate craft that cannot be mastered by ordinary people.
"You damn craftsman, those are all carved by machines. Hundreds or thousands of them can come out of the assembly line in a day. They are all dead things without spirit. But those things are cheap, more than ten yuan each, and
When placed at home, the appearance alone is no worse than these hand-carved ones, and there are many different shapes. Therefore, the things in my stall are very difficult to sell. Today I sold them to this foreigner, and this happened.
.”
The young people's words also revealed the reality that very few people now learn these traditional crafts. I am afraid that in a few years, there will be fewer and fewer skilled artists.
"I like this root carving very much. I'll buy it. Please give me a price."
Zhuang Rui looked at the young man who looked a little disappointed and almost told the truth about this carving, but in the end he held it back. He was not and did not want to be what the singer Xuecun sang, "We are all living Lei Feng."
.
Recommended book: Title: Rebuilding the Sword Demon
Introduction: The sword demon is rebuilt and the gods tremble.
