"That's it." Chen Dashan rubbed his hands and smiled awkwardly, but there was no disappointment on his face. These porcelains were brought back from antique markets in other provinces to coax his old man.
The price is not high, the average price per piece is only three to five hundred yuan. It is normal if there are no leaks, but it is abnormal if there are leaks.
"By the way, I also have a piece of porcelain here. It should be a real object. Brother, I'll be there in a moment." After Chen Dashan finished speaking, he quickly ran to another bedroom.
Within two or three minutes, Chen Dashan ran out of the bedroom with a black lacquered wooden box in his arms. He opened the lid of the box and found a lot of anti-collision sponges inside. He took off the sponges and revealed a bowl-shaped porcelain.
"This is a small bowl I bought at the Qingniuguan Antique Market when I was working as a clothing wholesaler in Dongjiang when I was young.
"At that time, I thought this bowl was different from other bowls. It was very gorgeous and gorgeous, so I bought it."
When Shen Yu saw the small bowl in the box, the corner of his mouth moved slightly, "Brother Chen, I wonder how much this bowl cost?"
"It was very expensive at the time. It cost me more than 3,000 yuan. At that time, my monthly salary was only 300 to 400 yuan, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it and I bought it.
"I'm afraid it has been preserved for 17 or 18 years now. Although I don't understand antiques, I just feel that it is a good thing.
"The only pity is that there was a crack in the bowl at that time. Later, my boy stole it and put some mud in it, which caused some mud to get in, making the crack look even dirtier."
Shen Yu nodded and slowly picked up the small bowl and began to enjoy it.
This bowl has a deep curved wall and shallow feet, about 12-13 cm in height and 2-3 cm in diameter. The porcelain body is fine and clean, and the glaze is shiny and moist.
The outer wall is painted with yellow enamel on the branches of peonies. At this moment, the flowers are in full bloom and the fragrance is about to drift.
There are two lines of poetry on the white part of the porcelain: "The autumn wind blows in my dream of Xiaoxiangpu, and I look back at the south tower and the moon is shining brightly."
These two poems were read by Shen Yu and were written by Liu Yong, a famous official in the Qing Dynasty.
The inner wall is painted with gorgeous landscapes, and the porcelain painting technique is even higher than that of the outer wall. After a closer look, you can hear the sound of thousands of pine trees and rain passing by, and the artistic conception of a valley full of vegetation and water.
On the bottom of the bowl is a four-character regular script inscription on a blue background: "Made in the Qianlong Year."
The whole small bowl can be said to be gorgeously decorated and extremely exquisite. No wonder Chen Dashan paid a high price to buy it.
"The filling is as white as snow, and it is so delicate that it is almost miraculous. This is a masterpiece." Shen Yu muttered while placing the small bowl on the Eight Immortals table.
He took out a strong flashlight from Pei Yuqin's password box and illuminated the small bowl, "Well, the side wall is as thin as paper, and you can also distinguish the color of the strokes on the front when the light shines on the back, which is amazing."
"The flowers have dewy light, and are bright and slender."
"Brother Chen, this is enamel color!"
"Enamel color? What kind of porcelain is this?" Chen Dashan asked in confusion.
Pei Yuqin explained: "Enamel porcelain is also called Gu Yuexuan porcelain. It was created and fired in the late Kangxi period and became popular in the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties.
"Enamel color is the crown of overglaze color, and it is also the best in porcelain and has the reputation of the official kiln among the official kilns.
"This kind of porcelain is specially prized by the royal family. Even the most favored ministers would not just give it to them casually. Many porcelains from official kilns are rewarded, but only a few are given enamel colors.
"To put it simply, among the porcelains of the Qing Dynasty, the best and most top-notch porcelain is your enamel color, and there is no other."
Chen Dashan swallowed: "Is it more precious than the blue and white porcelain or pastel porcelain of the third generation of the Qing Dynasty?"
Pei Yuqin smiled: "Kangxi blue and white and Yongzheng pastel are certainly precious, but except for the rarest and top-quality ones, most official kiln porcelain is nothing compared to enamel."
Shen Yu breathed a long sigh of relief and said: "Yes, if enamel colors appear on the market, they must be priced at a sky-high price. There is also a saying that ten pastel colors are not as good as one bucket of color, and ten buckets of color are not as good as one enamel.
"Because this kind of porcelain is fired without any cost, and it is extremely difficult to produce a finished product. It is a rare product.
"In the third generation of Qing Dynasty, the number of enamels from the beginning of firing to the end of the furnace was at most a thousand pieces, and some say four to five hundred pieces.
"There are probably only a few hundred pieces that are completely preserved now, and even fewer are circulating in the market. As long as they go up for auction, they will be snapped up immediately.
"The blue and white pastels of the official kiln may be given to officials when the emperor is happy, but this is just for the royal family to play with, and it is never given to ministers.
"Until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, some large antique stores only had one or two enamel pieces in the hall, which often became the treasures of the store that were not easily displayed to others.
"The famous ceramic collector and financier Shen Jifu in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China was very fond of collecting. He started collecting antique porcelain from the 26th year of Guangxu, that is, 1900, until 1931.
"In the past 31 years, he has collected more than a thousand pieces of precious ancient porcelain.
"According to legend, among them are a brush washer from Ru Kiln, several pieces of Ding Kiln porcelain, several pieces of Ge Kiln porcelain, dozens of Yongxuan blue and white pieces, and countless official kilns of the three dynasties of the Qing Dynasty.
"But among these porcelains, there is only one small plum vase with enamel paintings of pine, bamboo and plum from the Qianlong official kiln. Because it was a red-lettered model, it was considered a throwaway item at the time and not worthy of the real Gu Yuexuan porcelain. This shows how precious this thing is.
"Perhaps it was because of a knot in his heart. Later, Shen Jifu spent 80,000 silver dollars to buy a fake enamel product. In the end, he dropped it in anger, which was equivalent to hearing the 80,000 silver dollars ring a bell."
"Isn't this a rare treasure?" Chen Dashan was obviously a little excited...
Shen Yu waved his hand to indicate that he shouldn't be so excited, "Because it's too complicated to make this thing. Blue and white porcelain and pastel are troublesome enough, but it's not even a bit worse than this enamel.
"The complete set of specific manufacturing methods of enamel has been lost and can only be found in classics. The first step is to make a plain body in the porcelain capital. This step is very difficult. It must be made with the best raw materials and requires a moderate thickness of the body. The weight is moderate, too much is not enough, and too little is not enough, and the tires need to be plain without any defects.
"The second step is to select the whitest, most delicate and flawless porcelain bodies after firing them from the porcelain capital and send them to the Manufacturing Office of the Imperial Household Office in the capital.
"The third step is to invite famous artists and court painters of the time to draw figures, landscapes, flowers, birds, fish and insects, and write poems on white porcelain. This is the essence of enamel, and also the difficulty."
"Is this difficult?" Pei Yuqin suddenly asked in a troubled manner.
Shen Yu looked at Pei Yuqin and asked in confusion: "You are the vice president of Gaogu Auction and you have a family background, but you have never seen real enamel?"
Pei Yuqin rolled her eyes at Shen Yu with her watery eyes: "I was only responsible for porcelain calligraphy and painting in Gaogu recently. I used to be responsible for miscellaneous items and jade. Besides, as you just said, the market circulation of enamel colors is very small. I don't You know, isn’t this a normal thing?”
Shen Yu didn't want to argue with Pei Yuqin, and he also saw that this rich woman only used herself to relieve her boredom.
After thinking about it, Shen Yu asked: "Do you know who the painters are who paint enamel?"
"Who is there?"
"One of the Four Kings: Wang Yuanqi.
"Bachelor of Wenhua Palace, Crown Prince and Tutor, master of calligraphy and painting: Jiang Tingxi.
"One of the three directors, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Rites: Dong Bangda.
"Pioneering a new combination of Chinese and Western painting: Lang Shining.
"The number one scholar in the painting: Tang Dai.
"Ten Shishi laymen, there is one painting with three hundred years of allusions and beautiful stories: Li Shizhuo.
"In addition, there are Gao Qipei, Qian Weicheng, Wang Jingming, Yuan Jiang, Yuan Ying and other famous ancient officials and famous calligraphers and painters."
***The author has something to say***
Enamel [fàláng] is not Langya [láng yá]. Sometimes I get it wrong. You can search for this kind of porcelain. It belongs to the "rich gold" in porcelain.
