My system is not decent

Chapter 1789 Rusty, a thousand years of vicissitudes

Many beautiful artifacts are scattered in museums all over the world. Today we want to see them, and we have to buy tickets.

It looks like a gold and silver tiger-headed chariot and horse, something from the Warring States Period.

There is also a gold-silver-copper-winged tiger, something from the Spring and Autumn Period. It is said that it was unearthed in Hui County, Nanhe, and it is now hidden in the British Museum.

Others include wrong gold and silver gui, something from the Warring States period, which is collected by the Guimet Museum in France.

Bronze chariot and harness inlaid with gold and silver, early Western Han Dynasty, JJLally collection of Ugly Kingdom.

A gold and silver square ewer, Warring States Period, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in England.

There are too many hidden abroad like this, the more famous ones are wrong gold and silver swords, wrong gold and silver rings, wrong gold and silver car decorations, wrong gold and silver car and horse ornaments, wrong gold and silver mythical animal feet and so on.

The stars are changing, but how romantic is it?

The utensils are speechless, and the bronze has long been rusted.

And those wrong gold and silver are still radiant, as if silently telling the vicissitudes of the Chinese nation for thousands of years.

And this is just a craft used by a bronze rhinoceros. There are at least seven other crafts like this in China.

After all, the wrong gold and silver craft is only one of the eight major metalworking crafts in ancient my country. In addition, there are seven other kinds.

Like gold and silver, many people have heard of it, but not many people really know it.

Even some insiders don't really know much about it.

There are eight kinds of top crafts like this in ancient my country.

And many of them are usually heard, but do not know the specific details.

These eight gold-making crafts are gilding, filigree inlay, hammering, gold and silver interlacing, filigree, fried beads, chiseled flowers, and silk!
These are the gold processing technologies accumulated in China for thousands of years, and they are the important wealth of our country, each of which is amazing!

There are quite a few of them, which we have been in contact with and heard of, such as the craft of gilding, which we must have heard of.

In fact, gold plating, also known as fire gold plating, is to dissolve gold in mercury to form a paste gold amalgam, apply the gold amalgam evenly on the clean metal surface, heat to volatilize the mercury, and the gold and the metal surface are consolidated to form a bright gold amalgam. golden coating.

This process is still used on a large scale today, but the method has become different.

In ancient times, the gold-plating process was widely used in some luxury goods, mainly to save gold.

Gold gilding is a traditional ancient working people in our country. They summed up the crafts created in the production and labor, and the luxury and brilliance will not fade for a long time.

Judging from the gilt and Qing bronze objects unearthed since the Warring States Period, this kind of handicraft works can be said to emerge in endlessly.

For example: the "Chu Grand Court Slot Bell" in the late Warring States Period from the tomb of King Jing of Zhongshan in Beihe Mancheng, and the "Changxin Palace Lantern" unearthed from the tomb of Dou.

The gilded bronze "wine bottle" unearthed from the burial pit of No. [-] Maoling Mausoleum in Western Shaanxi, and the gilded bronze "inkstone" of the Eastern Han Dynasty unearthed in Xucheng, Jiangsu.

Especially the gilt copper inkstone drop is a combination of gilt and inlay.

Until the Qing Dynasty, there were many gilt artifacts left by various dynasties.

The beauty of gilding first appeared in the Warring States Period and has a history of more than 2000 years.

Throughout the ages, there have been countless beautiful works.

For example, the jade-inlaid gilt-silver-copper hooks of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Warring States gilt-inlaid jade-inlaid glass-silver belt hooks, and the Western Han gilt-silver bamboo-jointed copper incense burners.

In the Tang Dynasty, it reached a peak. Tang's gilt works include copper dragons with iron cores, gilt silver spoons with chiseled flowers and nine curves, gilt silver jars with parrot patterns, and gilt silver flower hairpins with mandarin duck and lotus patterns.

It can be said that there are exquisite works throughout the ages.

After the Tang Dynasty, there were five dynasties' "Long live for thousands of years" inscription hollow gold-plated silver mat, the Northern Song Dynasty's gold-plated lotus treasure son silver incense burner, and the Southern Song Dynasty's gold-plated silver plate with eight immortals pattern.

In the Ming Dynasty, its high-quality goods increased again.

For example, Ming silver gilt silk inlaid pearl headdress, gilt silver hairpin inlaid with gemstones and flower patterns, gilt silver hairpin inlaid with precious jade birthday stars, and silver gilt spoon with butterfly pattern.

Naturally, there were more fine works in the Qing Dynasty, such as gilt-silver inkstone boxes with enamel inlays, gilt-gilt hairpins with jade inlays, gilt-bronze imperial concubine corals, gilt-silver hand mirrors with ivory inlays, etc.

There are also many other gilt handicrafts, such as gilt-gilt inlaid coral double peach ruyi, gilt filigree forehead ornaments, silver-gilt silk-inlaid beaded stone nail sets, silver-gilt gold-plated bead-inlaid Garuda statues, etc.

How is such a beautiful object made?In fact, there are not many steps, there are four steps in total.

The first step is to forge gold into gold leaf, cut into pieces, and heat it to about 400oC in a crucible.

Then pour in the mercury and stir to completely dissolve the gold in the mercury.

Then pour it into cold water to cool it down, and it gradually becomes a silver-white mud paste-like gold amalgam. This liquid is commonly known as gold mud, and this process is commonly known as "sha (killing) gold".

The second is to use charcoal to polish off the patina on the surface of the copper ornament, and then use a "gold-coating stick" to dip a mixture of gold mud, salt, and alum evenly on the surface of the quilt.

The copper rod must be made of copper, and one end of it was flattened, smeared with sour plum soup, and immersed in mercury.

Repeat this many times until it is covered with a layer of mercury and let it dry.

After that, push and press while wiping, modern craftsmen call this technique "tie", three points of wiping and seven points of fastening.

This is to ensure that the metal structure is dense and adheres firmly to the utensils.

This process is commonly known as "smearing gold", which is applied to the surface of the copper ornament to be plated.

The third step is to bake it over a charcoal fire at an appropriate temperature to evaporate the mercury.

At this time, the gold is fixed on the copper ware, and its color also changes from white to golden yellow. This process is commonly known as "opening gold".

If the metal is required to be thicker, the above process must be repeated many times.

In actual operation, the thickness of the gold layer is about 36 microns for the copper piece that has been gilded four times.

The fourth step is to scrub with a brush dipped in sour plum water, and use a “press” made of agate or jade to grind and press along the surface of the utensil.

At this time, the gold-plated layer is dense and firmly combined with the cast object until a shiny gold-plated layer appears on the surface.

This process is commonly known as "calendering".

After cleaning and calendering and other processes, a beautiful gilt piece was born.

"The horse stepping book case is full of poetry, and the gilt horse has an ancient style."

Gilding is the pinnacle technique of ancient Chinese metal craft decoration, presenting the profound smelting culture of our country, and it is also the brilliance that will never fade.

However, other crafts are not far behind!
For example, Chen Wenzhe has been involved in the craft before - filigree inlay.

And this kind of craftsmanship is actually the gold and silver error technology that originated in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.

It reached a high level of art in the late Ming Dynasty, especially good at weaving and stacking techniques.

In addition, the Diancui technique is often used to brilliant effect.

I won't say more about this, the main reason is that Chen Wenzhe has a very high attainment in this craft, and he has also used this craft to make many gemstone flower bonsai.

Among the eight fine gold crafts in ancient times, in addition to gold and silver interlacing, gilding, and filigree inlay, the fourth is hammering.

This method takes advantage of the ductility of gold and silver, and hammers the gold and silver to stretch them into flakes, which are then formed into various shapes and decorations as required.

(End of this chapter)