National Tide 1980.

Chapter 743
Frankly speaking, although the old craftsmen have already put out their best clothes to wear.

But because they are all outdated gadgets at the bottom of the box, and they really seldom have the opportunity to participate in such high-end banquets.

This made them very uncomfortable and nervous in the magnificently decorated banquet hall.

It seemed a bit disgruntled and restrained, and even a little helpless.

But that's okay, because their work is their real calling card, their best face.

The works made by them, the things to be displayed today, have been distributed and displayed in the main hall of the Sacrifice Pavilion long before the meeting, becoming the most conspicuous existence.

In fact, the guests of Beishenchu ​​today only need to enter here to see the exhibits.

There will definitely be burning eyes, and then with admiration, while appreciating carefully, while admiring again and again.

Many people seemed to forget the time because of this, forgetting that they had to go to Beishen Kitchen next door, the main venue of today's banquet.

And the more knowledgeable people are, the more reluctant they are.

As a result, the hall of the Sacrifice Pavilion was soon overcrowded.

Ning Weimin had to ask for temporary measures to control the flow of visitors to ensure the safety of guests and exhibits.

Needless to say, the people who can come here today are definitely not blind masters, and most of them are people in the art industry.

No matter how much you cheer, even if you give more face, it won't be like this.

Then why is it still like this?
Hey, there is only one answer, and that is because the stuff is so good!

Almost all of these things on display are dazzling and breathtaking!
It can be called a miracle in the category of special handicrafts in the arts and crafts industry!

If nothing else, let’s talk about this porcelain first.

Liu Yongqing, who is currently working in the Jingcheng Handicraft Factory, has personally fired two pairs of large antique porcelain in recent years.

All the people who know ceramics at the scene were dumbfounded and praised.

For example, the pair of "Ancient Colorful Lotus Pond Waterfowl Big Fish Tank" from 1567-1572 in the Longqing period of Ming Dynasty.

The pair of large fish tanks imitated by Liu Yongqing are completely different from the original ones in terms of color and structure.

Not only fully demonstrated his superb level of color matching.

The key is that the inner wall of the fish tank requires the painter to hang his wrist to paint, which is also extremely skillful, and it is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

To be honest, none of the painters in Jingcheng Handicraft Factory possessed this level.

Originally, in the middle of the production, Liu Yongqing himself was also worried about this, and even once retreated.

Later, thanks to Ning Weimin's [-] yuan embellishment pen and the help of Bai Xueshi, a professor of the Academy of Arts and Crafts, this crucial technical problem was solved.

It has to be said that a professional painter is a professional painter, although Bai Xueshi is famous for his landscape paintings.

However, the ducks, mandarin ducks, and goldfishes it depicts are still full of vitality, just like the original works.

This has created this pair of flawless antique porcelain boutiques.

It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of 1984, the pair of large tanks had just been produced.

Because it was in time for the Spring Festival, it was temporarily placed in the warehouse of the handicraft factory, and it was almost sold at a sky-high price.

Dare to feel that the Japanese do not celebrate the Spring Festival. At that time, the foreign trade department brought a few Japanese businessmen to visit the factory.

This pair of large vats was immediately taken by a Japanese businessman, who bid 8000 yuan in foreign exchange certificates on the spot and wanted to transport them back to Japan for collection.

This price is much higher than the 600 yuan offered by Tangong.

Even the people accompanying the foreign trade department were envious.

The sales chief of the handicraft factory was naturally very moved, and he opened his mouth to agree.

Unexpectedly, Liu Yongqing resolutely refused.

The old man kept saying that the pair of large vats were ordered by Tan Gong, and they had already paid the full amount.

Later, the Japanese businessman raised the price by 8000 to [-] yuan and Liu Yongqing did not agree.

Even the Japanese businessman proposed to spend money to book and deliver the goods one year later, but he turned his head and refused.

He actually told people that he didn't have time and that he had other more important tasks to do later.

As a result, not only the people in the foreign trade department and the Japanese businessmen left with a stomach full of unhappiness.

Even the sales chief in the factory felt distressed.

Because of Liu Yongqing's stubbornness, he almost didn't have a heart attack.

Afterwards, the section chief went to the factory director and sued Liu Yongqing again.

But the factory manager is finally not confused this time.

On the contrary, I told the section chief that our altar palace is a long-term cooperation, and they order a lot of tableware every year.

No matter how high the Japanese company's bid is, it is still a one-shot deal, and if it is not done well, the foreign trade department will have to take advantage of it.

What's more, Liu Yongqing is not talking nonsense, there is indeed a big job behind him with a cost of more than 2 yuan.

If it can be done, it will definitely shock the peers in the industry and let our factory's reputation spread throughout the country.

We can't count petty accounts, let alone talk nonsense.

As a result, the section chief ate a big roast chicken, so he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut for the sake of the overall situation.

As for the more than 2 yuan construction cost mentioned by the factory manager, the big work that can be famous and show its face is another pair of antique porcelains on display today-a [-]-meter-high imitation Qianlong famille rose flower vase.

This thing is really amazing!
That can be said to be the pinnacle of all the works that Liu Yongqing has produced in his life.

If compared with this pair of land reward bottles, the pair of big fish tanks favored by Japanese businessmen may be reduced to ordinary things.

It's not enough to see at all, there is such a big gap.

Why do you say that?
Because the technical requirements for firing this pair of Dashang bottles are too high, which is almost unprecedented.

Except that the size of the [-]m vessel is very large, the required porcelain bodies cannot be purchased from JDZ, and can only be made by ourselves.

The more important technical difficulty of this pair of Dashang bottles is that they are pastel patterns of "a hundred flowers without revealing".

The so-called "a hundred flowers do not reveal themselves" is also called "a hundred flowers do not fall to the ground".

This was born in the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, a way of expressing glaze on porcelain.

It refers to the combination of pastels and golden colors, so that flowers of various colors fill the entire picture without revealing the porcelain bottom or the branches of the flowers.Hundreds of flowers float in the air like a goddess scattering flowers, so it has this name.

"Hundred Flowers Picture" is also called "Wanhua Brocade", "Wanhua Pile", "Wanhua Xianrui Picture" and so on.

According to the archives of the Qing Palace, this special porcelain is specially used for emperors to enjoy flowers and occasions.

Therefore, compared with other official kilns in the Qing Dynasty, the craftsmanship is more exquisite.

Its complicated firing process, rich colors and colorful paintings are by no means accomplished by a few people.

In fact, even for the royal family, making colorful porcelain with a hundred flowers without revealing it is a hanging matter with the possibility of falling short.

First of all, the Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs needs to issue a drawing sample, design a drawing of a gathering of flowers, and deliver it to the Imperial Kiln Factory as a powder copy.

Secondly, the craftsmen of the imperial kiln factory copied and outlined the drawing on the white porcelain body, which must be consistent with the original.

At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the unbalanced characteristics of the device surface which is different from the paper surface.

Once you make a mistake at this time, the whole situation changes.

No matter how beautiful the color materials are, and how superb the painters are, they can't make up for the original charm of the drawing.

In addition, there are so many color materials prepared, it can also be called the first among all porcelains.

If a hundred flowers are not exposed to the ground, there are no less than thirty kinds of colors that can be seen on one vessel.

Therefore, before painting, all the pigments for colored porcelain must be equipped, and there are nearly a hundred kinds of them, all of which need to be adjusted one by one.

It is conceivable how much manpower, how much time will be spent, and how much cost will be paid in advance for the completion of this work.

If there is no good craftsman to compose and design it, and skillful craftsman to paint and dye it, it will never be done.

To be honest, such craftsmanship can only appear in the Qianlong Dynasty when the craftsmanship was prosperous.

In addition to the overall social environment of advanced porcelain art at that time, Tang Ying, the pottery envoy, devoted his heart and soul to collecting the achievements of famous kilns in the past dynasties, including the best Chinese and foreign wares, and using the skilled craftsmen of the imperial kiln factory.

Only in this way can porcelain be used as the embryo and colored glaze be laid to create such an unprecedented brilliance.

But even so, the Qianlong Dynasty did not have a "hundred flowers without revealing" colored porcelain that exceeded the size of the vessel, because it was too difficult to make.

Therefore, as a master of antique porcelain, the greatest long-cherished wish of Liu Yongqing, a famous master of hanging colors, is to burn a pair of colorful porcelains with hundreds of flowers and no revealing colors of astonishing size.

It is also thanks to the support of big money like Ning Weimin.

The old man, who is increasingly feeling less energetic, can try to surpass his predecessors before he is completely old.

Needless to say, the requirements for the drawings of the Dashang bottles must be much higher than those of the pair of large fish tanks burned by Liu Yongqing.

In the end, thanks to Ning Weimin, he was willing to use 5000 yuan as a retouching fee to invite the well-known painter Zhu Danian to solve this problem.

This great painter is also a professor of the Department of Art and Ceramics, a colleague of Ye Hemin, and a great expert in ceramics.

Therefore, the conception of his sketches is very ingenious.

Not only does it meet the size of Liu Yongqing's porcelain body, but it also captures the image of spring without the sense of stacking.

But the bitterness is that this work is too labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Unlike Bai Xueshi's work of painting fish tanks in a week, even if Zhu Danian brought several high-achieving students from the Department of Ceramics to do it together.

It took several months of meticulous painting one after another to complete the painting of the pair of bottles.

Fortunately, the subsequent firing process was also considered smooth.

Under Liu Yongqing's fearful guard who never left the kiln's entrance almost day and night, this pair of absolutely unique colored porcelain treasures was finally successfully released.

But that's not all there is to it.

Although Liu Yongqing and Zhu Danian were very happy after the pair of big reward bottles were burnt out, they were extremely fortunate.

But at the same time, they also felt that the design was not well thought out, resulting in flaws that shouldn't have appeared.

This pair of bottles is really good, but because the shape of the bottle is too big, the beauty is all reflected by the patterns that do not show, so it seems a bit monotonous.

To put it bluntly, it means that you can only look at it from a distance, but not up close.

So they coincidentally began to wonder if they could add more delicate details.

After pondering and pondering, their attention finally focused on the stamens of the flower pattern.

The summed up opinion is that it would be great if the pistils can be made into a gold material with three-dimensional protrusions.

As a result, I thought of the unique filigree inlay technique in Beijing.

This craft is well-known for its fineness and ingenuity, and is also known as gold and silver fine craftsmanship.

Since its birth, it has been a royal craftsmanship, specializing in high-end custom gold and silver jewelry for the royal family.

Its essence lies not only in filigree, which breaks the monotony of gold and silver materials, but also in the ingenious method of inlaying jewels and emerald emeralds.

Take the golden silk wing crown unearthed in Dingling as an example, the delicacy of this hat is absolutely unimaginable to modern people.

It uses 518 gold wires with an average diameter of only 0.2 mm.

Knitted by skilled craftsmen, it is as thin as spun yarn with even gaps.

On the top of the golden crown is a group case of dragons playing with beads, and the dragon body and claws are made separately.

Only 8400 pieces of dragon scales are used, which is the masterpiece of filigree inlay works.

But the only thing that makes people a little worried is whether this kind of craftsmanship can be applied to porcelain. It seems that no one has done it before.

So for this matter, Liu Yongqing and Zhu Danian made an appointment with Ning Weimin, and the three of them went to the Beijing Filigree Inlay Factory together.

At first, the person in charge of the factory scratched his head when he heard this.

But I didn't expect that there were really good people in this factory. A master craftsman was Zhang Chongming, a descendant of the "King of Filigree".

As a master of technology, this old man gave an affirmative answer without stuttering.

He said that he has done it no matter whether gold is inlaid with jade or jade is inlaid with gold.

He even used gold to fill the gaps in ancient porcelain for Zhang Boju, which is not difficult.

Not to mention the inlays on the porcelain, even the slippery feeder is no problem.

But the only downside is that it must cost a lot of money.

Using gold as stamens for the two large reward bottles is actually equivalent to making more than 100 gold buttons of different sizes first, and then inlaying them on the porcelain bottles.

The workmanship and materials are not cheap. If you estimate the approximate price, even if the price of gold starts to drop, it will be about [-].

So for this, Liu Yongqing is very embarrassed.

He thought that the responsibility was entirely on him, which made Ning Weimin spend such a large sum of money.

But Ning Weimin didn't think so, instead he thought it was a real finishing touch.

It also inadvertently raised the grade of this pair of reward bottles.

If these delicate golden stamens are really made, then for the Grand Reward Vase, you can get what you want, and there is no shortcoming.

Conversely, if you don't do it, keep these regrets.

No matter how much money you spend in the future, I am afraid that you may not be able to find someone who can do this job again.

So without any hesitation, he said on the spot that he paid the money.

So far, Ning Weimin has already spent as much as 4 yuan on the cost of this pair of bottles.

But this is not the end.

Because by coincidence, at about this time, the two copper body filigree painting enamel glass pavilion palace lanterns that the Palace Lantern Factory promised to repair for him were also completed and finally delivered to him.

These two palace lanterns were originally the treasures of the town factory, and they were the works of Xu Baizhai, a master lamp maker in the House of Internal Affairs during the Qianlong period.

The preciousness lies not only in being an antique, but also in its luxurious and exquisite craftsmanship.

It's a pity that the lantern painting was destroyed, and the various gemstones that were originally inlaid were also dug out and taken away during special times.

Thanks to Ning Weimin's insight, he found it in the warehouse of the Palace Lantern Factory, and was willing to spend 5 yuan to buy it, and asked the Palace Lantern Factory to help repair it, and finally saved the pair of treasures.

Why did it take almost over a year to fix it?
That's mainly because you have to buy all kinds of gems.

The palace lantern factory also asked people to find connections, and finally put together cat's eyes, tourmalines, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and citrines in the jewelry factory and jewelry factory in the capital.

That's not to say, now this thing is really dazzling, Ning Weimin sees it in his eyes and loves it in his heart, and he can't put it down.

But just because this thing is so beautiful, these gemstones obtained by the Palace Lantern Factory are of high quality but the price is very cheap.

It is said that in extraordinary years, these factories collected good things with the money of three melons and two dates.

In Ning Weimin's eyes, there are only a thousand or eight hundred things that will be auctioned at least hundreds of thousands or millions of things in the future.

He suddenly had an idea again, and decided to play a big game.

Those are the two large vases that do not reveal a hundred flowers, and instead of making pure gold flower cores and stamens, he has to use the relationship of the Palace Lantern Factory to buy various jewels to inlay on them.

In this way, the money he spent on these two large bottles was gone.

The two bottles required more than 100 pieces of gemstones of various sizes, and it cost him tens of thousands.

The final overall cost was close to [-].

What is that concept?
That is to say, the cost of making these two bottles can at least cover four courtyard houses.

In addition, the time spent by the old craftsmen has gone to waste.

At this point, it was Zhang Chongming's turn to take over again, and he worked slowly and carefully.

Then think about it, this pair of grand reward bottles was finally completed, what kind of fine objects are they?

It was the brainchild of two master craftsmen and a well-known painter.

The Chinese tapestry is extremely exquisite, and it is almost ingenious.

Come out with one tool, the world's favorite!

It cannot be said to be unprecedented, it is also unprecedented!
Don't look at it as a new gadget, but its value, its craftsmanship, and its artistry, if compared with the real Qianlong Dynasty's genuine pastel porcelain.

Not only is it not inferior, it is even worse than that, it is a precious product.

(End of this chapter)