Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 256 Chapter 255 Asking for price

Qi Baishi, Zhuang Banshi, and Chen Shushi were known as the "Three Ancient Yan Stones" during the Republic of China.

Everyone knows that Mr. Qi painted flowers, birds, fish and insects, but he was actually also good at seal carving. In the year of liberation, he carved two seals for the big boss who cannot be mentioned.

Mr. Zhuang passed away early, and Mr. Chen was the only one left in Guyan Sanshi to manage seals in Liulichang.

Tang Zhitong didn't know anyone above, and many things were just hearsay.

This was Tang Zhitong's first visit to Liulichang. He chose a sales department that sold paintings and went in to take a look around.

Qi Baishi's shrimps and Xu Beihong's horses are all available here, in framed form.

"Excuse me, what's the price of this painting?" Tang Zhitong asked the waiter, pointing to a painting hanging on the wall.

Although Tang Zhitong didn't recognize Mr. Qi's Zhang, he still recognized the "Old Man XX" in the title and postscript.

"Seventy-five." The waiter looked up and replied.

"What about this one?" Tang Zhitong asked, pointing to another pair of horses. This one doesn't even need to read the title and postscript. You can see that the majestic horse is the handiwork of Mr. Xu.

"Ninety-five." The waiter raised his head again and replied.

"What about these paintings?" Tang Zhitong clicked on a few more paintings by Qi Baishi and Xu Beihong and continued to ask.

"This way, from the outside to the inside, the prices are getting higher and higher, the lowest is seventy-five, the highest is ninety-eight." The waiter was too lazy to quote Tang Zhitong one by one. This time, he didn't even raise his head and stretched out his arm to point to Tang Zhitong. After a while, he replied.

"Okay." With this service attitude, Tang Zhitong didn't bother to talk nonsense to him and turned around and left.

The waiter raised his eyelids, looked at Tang Zhitong, made a "cut" sound at the corner of his mouth, and ignored him.

Regarding this service attitude, I don’t know who the person is from, but they are so arrogant, there are only a few sellers, and the buyers are casual. If they want to buy from elsewhere, they basically can’t buy it.

After asking around for prices, Tang Zhitong figured it out. The lowest was seventy-five, and the highest was no more than one hundred.

This price is very cost-effective for collecting, but these are not in Tang Zhitong's plans for this year. They will have to wait until next year, at least.

Passing by the antique store, Tang Zhitong also went in and took a look around. There were more and more miscellaneous things here.

The antique business is a mixed bag of good and bad, which has seriously exceeded Tang Zhitong's cognitive scope.

Although the price is not high, Tang Zhitong ranks antiques behind collecting paintings, and this at least has to wait until the cultural relics store opens.

Although the service attitude of the state-owned enterprises is not good, at least they will not sell fake products as genuine products.

Antiques, antiques, this thing is just a toy, and it has always been the most gray business. In the prosperous times, many people used it to pay bribes, and it certainly cannot be developed as a serious business.

Tang Zhitong didn't care about his promising future, so why did he become a cultural relic dealer? He's not mentally ill.

Tang Zhitong wandered around and found the Engraving Cooperative. The counter was not big and it shared a facade with other stores. There were various raw materials for seals on the counter. A middle-aged man sat inside to engrave seals. He did not look as old as Chen. old.

After Tang Zhitong came in, he was not busy saying hello. He first carefully looked at the dazzling array of seal materials and seal boxes. Most of the seals were made of wood and celluloid, and they also dealt in various stones, ivory, etc. The seals are placed closely together, and like other stores, there are no prices.

It will be a long time before the price is clearly marked. Now if you want to know the price, you have to ask.

"Comrade, would you like to engrave a seal?" Seeing Tang Zhitong standing aside for a long time without speaking, the middle-aged man inside tried to print the engraved seal, then put it away and asked proactively. His attitude was much better than that of the waiter in the painting shop. .

"Excuse me, how much does a name stamp cost?" Tang Zhitong took out his cigarette and gave the other party one, asking kindly.

"It depends on the material. Wooden ones cost 50 or 60 cents, celluloid ones cost 80 cents, and stone ones have to be priced according to the material." The middle-aged man took the cigarette, clamped it on his ear, and replied.

"Can we process it with supplied materials?" Tang Zhitong saw the wooden seal on the counter and remembered that he still had several bags of small sandalwood materials at home and planned to reuse them.

"Okay, just engrave a name stamp for 20 cents." The middle-aged man replied patiently.

"Thank you. I found a piece of material a few days ago. I'm not sure. Could you please give me a look?" Tang Zhitong took out the seal stone Cheng Hai gave him from his pocket and put it on the counter. Pushing it over, there was also a box of large front doors pushed along with it.

"You're welcome, let me take a look." The middle-aged man put away his cigarette first, then picked up the seal stone and looked at it.

The middle-aged man looked carefully up and down, left and right with a magnifying glass, placed the seal stone on the counter, and said, "This is authentic Tianhuang, a good thing."

"Then I'm relieved. Can you estimate the price? How much is this piece worth?" Hearing the other party mention Tianhuang, Tang Zhitong remembered it. This thing has the reputation of "one tael of Tianhuang and one tael of gold". He knew He knew the material, but Tang Zhitong still wanted to know the price, so he asked.

"Your piece of material is small, and the crack is too obvious. I personally estimate it is worth about forty yuan." The middle-aged man pointed out the flaws to Tang Zhitong carefully and said.

"Okay, thank you. I thought it would be a little more expensive." Forty yuan, as a reward for a matchmaking, is quite appropriate considering Tang Zhitong's identity. He doesn't have much psychological pressure to put it away. It’s not enough for a deliveryman’s salary for a month.

"These are just raw materials. They are not cheap anymore. They are almost as good as gold." The middle-aged man pushed the seal stone placed on the counter towards Tang Zhitong. He looked at Tang Zhitong's clothes and saw that they were not cheap before he said.

"Thank you, I know it well. I will go home to look for materials and come back to you to engrave the seal." Tang Zhitong put away the seal stone, stuffed it in his pocket, nodded to him, and turned to leave.

The words of the man from the engraving cooperative reminded Tang Zhitong that these are just raw materials. If the price is high, this thing needs better "work".

There is a temple in the south of Shijia Hutong where Tang Zhitong lives, called the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. There is a huge reclining Buddha inside. It was a place where Tang Zhitong often played when he was a child. It is said that touching the Buddha's feet will cure all diseases, so the Buddha's feet became covered in pulp...

A few years ago, there was a wave of monks returning to secular life, and the Temple of the Reclining Buddha became the Donghua Market Jade Factory.

The residents in Donghua Market are mostly small traders and handicraftsmen in the early years. Some of them were recruited by the jade factory during the joint venture and started their working life.

The improvement of their status gave these previously reticent craftsmen a desire to express themselves.

When enjoying the cool weather in the summer, Tang Zhitong often listened to them talk about the art of jade. One of the sentences impressed him deeply, which was called "Three parts of material, seven parts of work."

This is true for jade, and it must be the same for Tianhuang. If you want to achieve the price of one or two Tianhuang or ten taels of gold, you have to find a good seal carving master.

　Regarding the material of the seal, I would like to thank book friend "Golden Blood" for correcting me. After the modification of the previous chapter, the comment was deleted by the system and I cannot reply. I can only explain it here.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)