Recently, the popularity of auctioning Xinjiang and Hetian jade in the domestic auction industry is no less popular than the paintings and calligraphy of ancient famous artists.
As more and more auction houses intervene, Hetian jade has ushered in a new round of price increases. Compared with before, the prices of Hetian jade of different grades have increased by 1 to 3 times.
Currently, the best Hotan mutton-fat jade seed material on the market can cost thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan per gram, which is much more expensive than gold.
Hotan City is very familiar to Wei Changqing. This young man from a family of jade carvings has made 6 or 7 trips to Hotan City every year in the past few years.
Because there is a river flowing here with wealth. The Yulong Kashgar River developed on the northern slope of Kunlun Mountain is the source of Hotan jade seeds, and because Hotan jade seeds have increased 1,000 times in 20 years.
Wei Changqing is knowledgeable, and Qian Mingyuan is even more knowledgeable. Qian Mingyuan, who was born in a Hotan family, worked as a buyer in a government-run factory when he was young. He handles tens of millions of dollars every year and handles jade materials weighing several tons.
More than ten years ago, he once spotted a 3-ton piece of mountain material in Hotan (jade mined from rock formations is called mountain material, and jade pieces collected from river beds are called ziyu). At that time, the seller offered a price of 15 million yuan. But now, 15 million can only buy a fraction of it.
At that time, the jade materials were very cheap and came in piles. But after that, every time he went to Hotan, the jade materials he saw became smaller and smaller.
In Qian Mingyuan's view, the Hotan jade market has undergone the biggest changes this year. It can be said that the appearance and price change every month.
Qian Mingyuan said: “When I went to Hotan in March, I could see dozens of high-end materials worth tens of thousands of yuan (more than 100 yuan per gram) on the market every day. There was room for selection. By August and September, there would be When I see materials worth tens of thousands of yuan, it only costs a few yuan a day.
This time I went to Hotan for a month and visited several bazaars. During this period, I also went to the bazaars in Zong, Zhakou, Qu/Shou, Qiaer/Bake, Bu/Ya, Ji/Ya and other places where materials are produced. You can do this Said: It’s so disappointing! If it weren’t for the relationship between old friends, I would almost have left empty-handed.”
Wei Changqing also lamented: "Now the closer you are to the jade producing area, the higher the price of jade. The price of jade in Hotan is higher than that in Kashgar, and the price in Kashgar is higher than that in Ulu and Muqi. And this year, the price of mountain materials and seed materials has increased together." , at a recent auction, a 12-kilogram piece of white jade mountain material sold for more than 6 million yuan, with an average of 50,000 yuan/kg.
In 2004, the price of white jade mountain material was only 8,000 yuan/kg. In 1997 and 1998, it was only 1,500 yuan/kg. Ten years ago, in the 1980s, the price of mountain material was 80 yuan/kg.”
Gu Tong also said: "Yes! The soaring price of seed material is even more alarming. In the 1980s, 1 kilogram of good seed material could be sold for more than 200 yuan. In the 1990s, 1 kilogram of similar seed material had risen to 2,000 yuan. Yuan.
After the 2003 **, the price of Hotan jade experienced a sudden increase, and now 1 kilogram of jade has been sold for 200,000 yuan. In the twenty years from 1980 to 2000, the price increased 1,000 times."
Gu Tong and Qian Mingyuan felt this the most, especially Qian Mingyuan. What impressed him most was that when he first entered the factory at the age of 20, there were mountains of jade in the waste pile of the jade factory. At that time, after work every day, he would pick up a The waste jade material left over from the dustpan processing was thrown away. If it were today, that dustpan jade material would be worth tens of thousands.
A few people were talking and not forgetting to work. The place they found was, according to Han Peacock, a jade nest.
It turns out that this is the turning point of a river, but for some reason, a huge rock fell down and blocked the river channel, causing the river upstream to change its course.
Although this side was blocked, some jade stones were washed away, so a jade nest was formed here.
Seven people were on the exposed river bed, looking for rough stones that they liked. As long as someone was doubtful or confident, they would go back outside and use a cutting machine to cut a hole to see what was going on inside.
Although cutting into more than a dozen pieces may not produce a single piece of jade, there are so many rough stones in this jade nest.
According to Huangshan's words, he sees every pebble as if it were made of raw materials. In his opinion, it would be best to give every stone here a knife.
Of course, others would not be as crazy as him, but Huangshan did do this. When others did not use cutting machines, he went to the river to move a lot of round stones the size of human heads and cut them piece by piece.
Seeing his appearance, Qian Mingyuan and Gu Tong laughed. Qian Mingyuan said with a smile: "Xiao Huang will not let go of his mistakes. If we kill them all, I believe that none of us will gain as much." You are more."
Gu Tong also smiled and said: "Diligence can make up for clumsiness. This method is the simplest and most effective. No matter how powerful you are, you will make mistakes sometimes, but if you do this, you will never miss."
Han Kongque glanced at the Huangshan side. This guy was wasting too much electricity. The battery he just took out should not have much electricity left at this time.
Huangshan was very proud at this time. He didn't need to go down to pick and choose, and he didn't need experience. He just chose a big one, and it was just a knife when he picked it up. It didn't matter if there was no jade, and it didn't take much effort anyway.
If there is jade, then he will make a lot of money. As long as jade is produced from the material the size of a human head, the value will not be low.
"This guy, if everyone is like him, there is no need to learn from Xiangyu." Han Kongque said in a low voice.
Qian Mingyuan smiled and said: "Here, there are not so many rough stones for him to cut in other places. If it were outside, the prices of the rough stones he cut would be clearly marked."
Gu Tong agreed: "Not to mention other things, compared to those fake rough stones, at least all the stones here are natural. No matter how they appear externally, they all have the possibility of producing top-quality jade."
"Yes! Nowadays, the Hotan Jade market is full of fish and dragons, and there are also many gamblers who have been fooled." Qian Mingyuan sighed.
"It's easy to tell if it's fake. The market is now flooded with cheap jade. If old guys like us can't keep up with the times, we will definitely suffer losses and be fooled." Gu Tongdao.
In the market now, in addition to Hotan in Xinjiang, jade is also produced in Qinghai, Hainan, and Russia. It is collectively called Hotan jade in the market, so if you are not really knowledgeable, you should not buy high-priced jade to avoid being deceived.
Since the rough stones here performed really well, it only took a short time for everyone to gain something.
These rough stones that were picked out were all placed next to the cutting machine, waiting to be unraveled.
Everyone was talking and resting, while Huangshan was still cutting stones with a groan.
Han Kongque couldn't stand it anymore, so he could only take the cutting machine from his hand and let Qian Mingyuan and Gu Tong use it.
The cutting machine Han Kongque got was a small cutting machine with a cutting blade of four hundred, so it could only cut small rough stones, and the most they picked out were small pebbles.
Watching Qian Mingyuan unravel the stone, Han Kongque whispered to Huangshan some jade knowledge, saving him from further embarrassment.
Listening to Han Kongque and Huang Shan talking in low voices, Qian Mingyuan also joined in the fun. Among them, apart from Wei Changqing, he was the one who knew the most about nephrite, especially Hetian jade.
He can tell the quality of jade at a glance, especially in terms of the delicate and moist texture of jade. There are many terms in the craft world to express defects and reflect the quality of jade.
For example, "yin" means that jade has a dark feeling; "oil" means an oily feeling that is not condensed; "tender" means that it is transparent but not effective, and has a delicate and tender feeling; "dry" means that it is not moist; "porcelain" means that it is not moisturizing; ", that is, just like porcelain. With these symptoms, the quality is not good.
In the jade shop, there is a certain level of skill involved in gambling, and most people, unless they are experienced master craftsmen, will not be able to tell.
Because when Hotan jade is mined, most of it is wrapped in a layer of weathered leather, and the quality of the inner fabric cannot be clearly seen. At this time, experienced jade identification experts can judge the texture of the inner fabric through the skin color. This is the gambling material. .
When he was young, Qian Mingyuan was an adventurous person. When he first arrived at the factory, he became famous because of a gambling incident.
At that time, the workshop was processing a piece of agate, but the thick skin made it impossible to tell where to start cutting.
If you cut it hastily, the entire agate will be useless. Faced with this piece of material, the workshop director and the old master said that the position pointed out by Qian Mingyuan cannot be cut, but with his insistence, it turned out to be okay.
After that, others lost nine out of ten bets, but he won nine out of ten bets.
However, as the price of Hotan jade rises, there are fewer and fewer real Hotan jade, and a large amount of green, sea, and Russian materials are flooding it. This makes Gan Mingyuan, who has more than 40 years of experience in identifying jade, sometimes make mistakes. .
In May this year, Qian Mingyuan fell in love with a half-meter-square piece of Russian material in Hotan. From the skin color, he judged that the inside was jasper.
Such large jasper is relatively rare. Qian Mingyuan had already imagined in his mind that he could use it to make a screen, so he bought it without hesitation for 60,000 yuan.
But when I got home and cut it open with a guillotine, I found a stone inside. The guillotine is equivalent to a circular saw. It is installed on the jade grinding machine. When it is turned, it drives emery and is used to remove the useless parts other than the ink line.
Techniques are divided into raking, gouging, and raking. raking refers to cutting edges and hanging corners; raking refers to cutting at two angles and cutting out the middle part; scribing refers to the repeated use of cutting and raking. These are all used in the molding and blanking process. .
Even veterans like Qian Mingyuan often make mistakes, not to mention some rookies. The high turnover rate and the emergence of a large number of "rookies" have turned wall bricks into rare and valuable treasures. Therefore, don't look at just one piece here. Ordinary stones can be sold for money as long as they are shipped out.
"We can't stay here too long." Qian Mingyuan said when he saw Wei Changqing entering the river again after cutting the stones.
Wei Changqing paused and said, "We can go back a few times in the meantime."
Han Kongque said: "Maybe other people will also gain something, so they won't care about us." (To be continued, please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!