Riding the wind of rebirth

"This is what the ghost market is like," Zhou Zhi taught Mai Xiaomiao: "Real and fake, fake and real, it all depends on your eyesight and level."

"These items are indeed made of glass, and the glass is made of glass. I am not lying about this." Zhou Zhi said: "The Qing Dynasty's refining equipment was affected by the technology of the time. It is indeed not as easy to melt as modern high-temperature equipment, but the craftsmen also used their ingenuity to make things as exquisite as possible under the limited technology."

"One of the techniques is called 'overlaying', or overlaying colors."

"The meaning of the nesting is to first make a base for the vessel. For example, the base of this red dragon snuff bottle is very open, which is called 'lotus root powder ground' in the jargon. This is a standard feature of the Yongzheng Dynasty."

"After the body is made, the craftsmen will heat it up and then coat it with a layer of glass of another color, which is why this craft is called 'overlaying color'."

"For example, this snuff bottle is made of lotus root powder with a layer of cinnabar red on the outside."

"Then use sand to grind the surface to create three-dimensional and colorful patterns."

"So this pink bottle with a red dragon coiled around it is the real thing? But this color is indeed as you said just now, it is for girls..."

"This view is actually the thinking of modern people." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "You have seen the world in the National Museum these days. You also know that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty pursued fresh, pure and bright glaze colors. There are also those imperial beads decorated with tourmaline, lapis lazuli and jadeite..."

“And pastels, which are also very girly.” Mai Xiaomiao felt that he understood: “So this is the aesthetic taste of the Qing Dynasty emperor.”

"Yes, so what I said just now was just to fool the stall owner. These are the only things worth money in his stall."

"You are so mean." Mai Xiaomiao bumped Zhou Zhi's shoulder. "It's obviously a genuine Qing Dynasty artifact, but you tricked it into being a modern artifact."

"He's using modern crafts to fool me about the Qing dynasty." Zhou Zhi expressed his dissatisfaction: "Didn't we just tie?"

"But I don't want these vials."

"Why? Didn't you like it just now?"

"You said that the stall owner's ancestors used it... How disgusting!"

"That's just nonsense from the stall owner..."

"I don't want it anyway!"

"Okay, if you don't want it, I'll give it to you." Zhou Zhi said with a smile, "Xiao Miao did a good job just now. His reaction was quite quick and natural."

"Well, that's what you said. It looks good, but it looks leaky." Mai Xiaomiao nodded: "But you marked that price on my back, it really scared me."

"In winter, the clothes are thick and this move will freeze your hands. It's not well designed." Zhou Zhi said: "Fortunately, you can still feel it, otherwise it would be my turn."

"You should be better than me."

"No, no, no. If I go up, I might be caught by him. These people are very smart. They can tell at a glance whether you are a newcomer or a veteran. They won't be on guard against someone like you."

"You haven't told me whether I made a profit or a loss on those little pots I bought for two hundred dollars."

"Oh, we'll have to see if the two old men like it after we get back. If they like it, we'll lose, but if not, we'll win." Mai Xiaomiao was happy again and bumped Zhou Zhi's shoulder again: "If the two grandfathers like it, we'll give it to them as a gift, which is also good."

Zhou Zhi was wondering if the reason why Mai Xiaomiao was so popular with the two old men was because they had similar personalities. They were quite similar in that they both gave things to others casually.

The opportunity to shop in the capital also opened Zhou Zhi's eyes. Compared with Shudu, the quality of the goods here is much higher.

The most common artifacts on the Shu cultural relics market are porcelains from the Republic of China, and then they skip over the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and go straight to the Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

The porcelains of the Han, Tang and Song dynasties were unremarkable. The original celadon of the Han Dynasty had little value except for its archaeological value. Apart from sancai and secret color porcelain, the folk utensils of the Tang Dynasty were also quite ordinary. The few pieces in Zhou Zhi's hands were already rare masterpieces.

In addition to the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, the rest are also of great archaeological value. Things from the five famous kilns are generally not seen in the antique market. Instead, there are many crude porcelains from folk kilns. However, even a complete piece in the hands of experts is not as valuable as the fragments of the five kilns.

But it is different in Beijing Daliushu, where blue and white, pastel and monochrome porcelain are all available. And they are also of many years, from the Ming Dynasty to the modern times.

The only regrettable thing is that most porcelains have slight defects, such as broken lines, knocks, glaze cracks, cracks, color damage, bottom bursts, loss of luster... It is rare to find a complete piece.

With Zhou Zhi's current vision and strength, he naturally looked down upon such things, so he visited several places. When Mai Xiaomiao touched a few things, Zhou Zhi no longer said "it looks good", but "I can't quite tell".

Occasionally, when Zhou Zhi was pestered by the stall owners, he would tell Mai Xiaomiao some knowledge about cultural relics in front of the stall owners. In the jargon, this is called "showing the bottom line", which means that don't fool me as if I were an expert, because we are all experts.

Generally speaking, when encountering such a situation, the stall owner will no longer pester him, but hope that he and Mai Xiaomiao will leave quickly, because this will affect the stall owner's business.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

"There is nothing wrong with this porcelain from the surface." Zhou Zhi is now explaining science to Mai Xiaomiao: "But this porcelain has obviously been repaired."

"Where has it been repaired?" Mai Xiaomiao asked.

The light was not bright, so a flashlight was needed, but under the flashlight there was no visible defect on the porcelain.

Zhou Zhi took off Mai Xiaomiao's gloves and taught her to gently scratch the glaze with her fingernails: "Do you feel it?"

"Huh?" Fingernails are actually very sensitive devices, but many people don't know this. As soon as Mai Xiaomiao's finger passed over the surface of the porcelain, he felt that there was a place that was different from the others: "Here?"

"There was a line here before. The line is a tiny crack on the porcelain. Any such small crack will be very obvious if you feel it with your fingernail."

"But the more obvious ones should be the line marks, which are the traces left by the dust and dirt accumulated in the lines. If a piece of porcelain has line marks, you can't see them but you can feel them..."

"That means it has been processed!" Mai Xiaomiao understood it immediately.

"Auntie, please keep your voice down!" Zhou Zhi quickly covered Mai Xiaomiao's mouth and said to the stall owner, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, she's just a little girl who just came to see the world. We'll leave now... We're sorry for offending her."

"Wait a minute!" The stall owner was an old man in his fifties or sixties. He was not angry, but smiled slightly. He took out a tissue paper bag from his green canvas bag, opened it, and revealed a small plate. He placed it in front of Zhou Zhi: "I am a fool, but you are an expert. You have such a sharp eye. Do you dare to look at another one?"

"How can I teach you, sir?" Zhou Zhi couldn't help but be solemn.

"We are all trying to make a living, and the rules are different for those in the industry and outsiders. So I'd like to trouble you to plate this dish. If you can explain it clearly, you can take it for 300 yuan. But if you can't explain it clearly, you can still take it, but you have to pay the price. How do you think?" (End of this chapter)