Tibetan play style

Chapter 9

On the one hand, on weekends and holidays, many people have time to come out to try their luck and see if they can find satisfactory collections. On the other hand, many small vendors in the surrounding areas also come here to admire their reputation. A newspaper or a piece of flannelette has also become a counter. , put up all kinds of old gadgets that are scattered around, and put a small stool behind to sit on, and the business will be considered open.

Today is not the weekend, and it is the time when the sun is shining. There are only a few people in the market.

Xu Yunhan walked around, observed and compared the antique shops in the market, and inquired a little bit. The most authoritative one in the market is the one in front of him. Seeing that the scale is indeed quite large, Xu Yunhan himself thinks that a large store is more reliable than a small one. some.

On the simple and elegant facade, there is a wooden signboard with the words Jiyaxuan written in Xiaozhuan.

"Girl, welcome, take a look."

An old man in a Tang suit with gray hair saw her walk in the door, greeted her lightly and politely, and continued to read the book in his hand.

After walking in, I realized that the area of ​​Yaxuan from the outside is far smaller than the actual space inside.

It can indeed be called wide. The store is very deep. There are elegant tables and chairs in the lobby, and Duobaoge is placed on the walls beside it, and some ornaments are placed in different categories.

Xu Yunhan guessed that most of these ornaments were just imitations, otherwise they would not have been placed in such a big way. You must know that the preservation and collection of precious cultural relics requires extreme care.

The whole store is filled with a peaceful atmosphere, and it is like two worlds separated from the noisy market outside the store.

"Hey, girl, are you still there?"

The old man, who had flipped through a few pages of the book, raised his eyes casually, and was a little surprised to see Xu Yunhan still in the store.The girl looked young, and he thought she was just coming in to see what was new, so he let her visit at will.

"Do you have something you want to see? Or something?"

The old man put down the book in his hand and walked towards her.

"Boss, I'm looking for someone to palm my eyes to see something."

"What? I can take a look for you. Come, sit down and talk." The old man looked at her and said, and then took her to the set of pineapple wood tables and chairs in the hall.

Before sitting down, Xu Yunhan hurriedly took out the snuff bottle from the side bag of his trousers while standing.

The old man who took out a pair of white gloves from nowhere and was putting them on his hands frowned, thinking, he said how to appraise things but kept his hands empty, so it turned out that he put them directly in his pocket. If it's really a good thing, isn't this a waste of money?

"Boss, I'm sorry."

Xu Yunhan held up the snuff bottle respectfully and put it on the table. Fortunately, she was polite and well behaved, so the old man's expression softened a little, and he said lightly,

"Well, you're welcome."

?
After speaking, the old man looked at the snuff bottle on the table, and then took out a wooden box from a low cabinet and opened it, which contained magnifying glasses of various sizes and multiples as big as a mirror and as small as a fingernail. Start looking at snuff bottles.

Seeing the unusual professionalism of the old man, Xu Yunhan began to look forward to it.

The custom of snuffing originated from the Indians, the inventors of tobacco.Around the 14th century, the Italians selected high-quality tobacco leaves, mixed them with mint, borneol and other medicinal materials, ground them into powder, and sealed them in cellars for aging.

Han people began to inhale snuff in the Ming Dynasty.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were very few snuff imports, only in Guangdong.Kangxi lifted the sea ban, and Western missionaries carried a large amount of snuff and glass bottles containing snuff.Snuff became fashionable.Western countries took the lead in offering tribute snuff and glass snuff bottles, first Portugal, followed by Britain, France and other countries.Emperor Qianlong often rewarded princes and ministers with snuff, so following the practice up and down, snuff gradually became a social fashion.

Until the demise of the Qing Dynasty, in the hundreds of years, the manufacturing process of snuff bottles has been greatly developed, and high-quality innovations have emerged in an endless stream.

Among them, the inner painting pot has the greatest influence on later generations and is most loved by people.
There is an interesting legend about the formation of inner paintings. In the last years of Qianlong, a small local official came to Beijing to handle affairs.

Due to the inefficiency of court officials and the lack of bribery, although he waited for a long time, his affairs were still delayed.A small local official ran out of money and food, so he had no choice but to stay in a temple in the capital. He was addicted to snuff. , many scratches were formed on the inner wall of the snuff bottle. This snuff bottle was seen by a scheming monk. Through experiments, the monk used a bamboo skewer to cut out the pointed end, dipped it in ink and drew pictures on the inner wall of the transparent snuff bottle. This peculiar painting was born.

The original inside-painted snuff bottle was a transparent glass pot without frosting on the inner wall. Because the inner wall was smooth, ink and color were not easy to adhere to, so we could only draw some simple pictures and patterns, such as: grasshopper cabbage, dragons, phoenixes, and simple landscapes and figures. Wait.

Later, artists used iron sand and emery to add water to shake and grind the inner surface of the snuff bottle back and forth, so that the inner wall of the snuff bottle was milky white frosted glass, delicate and not smooth, easy to adhere to ink, and the effect was like rice paper. Some relatively fine works appeared, and later developed into fine art works with both poetry, calligraphy and painting.

"This is a gourd-shaped red coral snuff bottle in the late Ming Dynasty. After snuff was first introduced to China, people first used traditional medicine bottles to hold snuff. On this basis, they used a variety of materials and manufacturing techniques to perfect the container for snuff."

Xu Yunhan waited for more than ten minutes before the old man put down the snuff bottle, took a sip of tea, and said without talking nonsense.

"And this snuff bottle of yours appeared after making some changes from the traditional gourd-shaped medicine. It can be chosen as the ancestor of the snuff bottle. There are not many in existence, and it is estimated that there are only twenty or thirty."

Speaking of this, the old man chuckled and couldn't help being a little excited, "What's even more rare is that this snuff bottle made of the whole red coral is very well preserved. You must know that red coral is most afraid of insect eyes and being corroded."

When the snuff bottle was confirmed to be authentic, although Xu Yunhan was mentally prepared, she was still very excited, not only because of the leak, but also because she could sense the difference from the ancient object, so could she be able to distinguish the authenticity from the fake? Woolen cloth? !

"This snuff bottle, little girl, are you willing to sell it?" The old man asked eagerly. Such a good item is hard to come by.

(End of this chapter)