Ye Qiushuang looked over and found that it was a very small thing, but they all recognized what it was.

"Snuffbox, when did you get it?" said Lao Huang was surprised.

Zhao Tianming and the others were also surprised, just now, they didn't see her make any moves? Could it be that she got it before? It doesn't seem to be very reasonable, shouldn't you take it with you?

"Is this called a snuff bottle, is it worth it? When you were looking at the furniture, I found it in the corner, and there was a potted plant next to it, do you have any impression?" said the young woman.

Speaking of potted plants, Zhao Tianming and they immediately had an impression.

In the southeast corner of the outer hall just now, isn't there a potted plant, a pothos?

Come to think of it, when the family moved, they thought it was sundries, so they threw it away. In the end, the "girlfriend" brought by Lao Huang picked up a bargain.

It's impossible to tell this family about the things you get in that situation, and if you pick them up, you'll pick them up for nothing, and if you're lucky, you don't want them anyway.

A snuff box, in short, is a container for snuff. It is small and easy to carry. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, snuff was introduced to China, and snuff boxes gradually became orientalized, resulting in snuff bottles. Nowadays, the habit of snuff is almost extinct, but the snuff bottle has survived as a beautiful work of art, and it has been flourishing for a long time.

Chinese snuff bottles, as exquisite handicrafts, set calligraphy and painting, carving, inlay, pondering and other skills in one, using porcelain, copper, ivory, jade, agate, amber and other materials, the use of blue and white, colorful, carved porcelain, nesting, ingenious work, painting and other techniques, absorbing the advantages of a variety of crafts inside and outside the region, by the elegant people as a precious cultural play, at home and abroad enjoy a good reputation.

"This was originally a Western thing, but it was only introduced to our country during the Ming Dynasty that it gradually became an art and became a work of art. Zhao Tianming said.

He took the small snuffbox, which was less than half a palm's size.

"Made of agate, right?" Ye Qiushuang could easily see the material of this snuff bottle.

"Is agate valuable?" the young woman didn't understand very well.

Lao Huang told her: "Agate is also a kind of jewelry, do you say it's worth it?"

Ye Qiushuang couldn't help but say to Old Man Huang: "Jewelry is also expensive and cheap, it's not right for you to talk like that." ”

She said to the young woman: "Sister Sun, there is a large stock of agate in nature, so ordinary quality agate is not worth anything at all. It's like pearls, all over the street, and the price is close to the people. ”

She didn't mean to belittle Onyx, in fact, as she said.

Agate has a variety of colors of ring stripes, the texture is very similar to crystal, delicate and no impurities, with the luster of glass, showing transparent or translucent multi-layered, each layer overlaps each other, there are ripples, concentric, mottled, layered and other patterns.

In the East, it is one of the seven treasures and seven treasures.

"Thousands of kinds of agate and ten thousand kinds of jade", there are many types of agate, China regards red agate as authentic since ancient times, there is a saying that "agate is not red and poor in the world", the Western Han Dynasty used to call agate "red jade" or "red qiong" is to take the meaning of "red".

Therefore, this gemstone is very much in nature, with a wide variety of varieties, and the value varies greatly.

At present, the most valuable red agate on the market is the southern red agate, produced in Yunnan, South and Hainan, etc., the best type of white agate is lychee jelly, and the rarer and more expensive is the water urchin agate, the water urchin agate has a closed cavity, containing an aqueous solution, there is a gurgling sound when shaking, and you can see the appearance of water flowing in the agate, which has excellent investment and collection value.

"If it's red agate, lychee jelly white agate, or water urchin agate, it's definitely precious. The quality is very ordinary. ”

Hearing Ye Qiushuang's words, the young woman Sister Sun was a little disappointed.

When she first picked up this thing, she was quite excited, but the owner of the old mansion was still present at the time, and she couldn't bear it without any reaction.

"Whether it's worth the money or not, we can't judge it just from the material. The most important thing is the artistic value. Those ancient calligraphy and paintings, the material is very simple, isn't it just a piece of paper, a little ink? But they are not cheap. Zhao Tianming said with a smile.

These words gave Sister Sun a glimmer of hope, and her eyes stared at Zhao Tianming.

Lao Huang agreed with Zhao Tianming's words: "That's right! This snuff bottle, I think it's pretty good." ”

Ye Qiushuang glanced at him with disdain: "How is it good? ”

"In my opinion, this kind of relief pattern should be an object of the Qing Dynasty. Lao Huang said a few words casually, but in fact, there were no nutritious words.

Seeing Lao Huang looking at him, Zhao Tianming continued his words and said: "It should be something from the end of the Qing Dynasty, judging from the carving on the surface, it is relatively ordinary and very common folk art. I think it should have been used by a large family at that time. ”

Although snuff bottles were introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty, they really became popular in the Qing Dynasty and were all the rage.

At that time, from the emperor to the common people, everyone who had the conditions couldn't help but prepare a beloved snuff box for themselves.

Especially in the Kangxi era, the Kangxi Emperor had a soft spot for Western handicrafts, and he recruited a group of Westerners who were proficient in glass snuff bottle making and enamel painting to make snuff bottles in the Forbidden City. The art of snuff bottles reached its peak in the Qianlong Dynasty. Collecting snuff bottles has become a trend, and the use of snuff has gradually become secondary.

"How do you smoke it?"

The young woman didn't understand, is it just a bottle, put the tobacco in it, light it when she wants to smoke, take two puffs, and then close it again?

"Snuff is made from high-quality tobacco leaves, mixed with borneol, mint, musk and other medicinal materials, sealed and preserved, and aged. To put it simply, the snuff box is the right size to carry around, usually put snuff powder into the snuff box, when the mind is dizzy, open the snuff box and put it under the nose to smell, you can achieve the purpose of clearing the mind. Zhao Tianming said.

Of course, there were also some things that were a little more particular, for example, pouring snuff from a snuff box on the fingers, the back of the hand or the tiger's mouth, and sniffing it, which was a popular method of use at that time.

Later snuff bottles were equipped with a delicate spoon on the lid, which was used to scoop out the snuff and inhale deeply under the nostrils, which gradually became fashionable.

To put it more simply, it is similar to modern white powder.

"Nowadays, snuff smokers are rare, and people are more likely to play with snuff bottles as delicate collectibles, and the size of the snuff box is just right for the hand, so there are many people who use the snuff bottle as a small object to play with in their hands. The market price of your piece is about 350,000 yuan!" Zhao Tianming gave a rough estimate.