PS: Thank you for the reward of "Liu Lijin, Dongshan Village, Ningxiang County" and "2. Forcing Xiao Youth"!

Meng Zitao first took a cursory look at the painting, and felt that this painting was very good, in line with Yun Shouping's style, if it was genuine, the price would definitely be expensive.

However, due to the poor preservation, there are some insect bite marks on the drawing paper. There is even a hole in the bite of insects, which has affected the content of the scroll, which will definitely affect the price of the work.

Although Meng Zitao's feeling at first glance was good, as mentioned above, the appraisal of calligraphy and painting is very sophisticated in the skills of appraisers, and Meng Zitao's knowledge and eyesight in this area are relatively weak.

However, Meng Zitao did not use the ability immediately, and after taking a cursory look at it, he used the four methods that Wang Zhixuan and his friends said a few days ago when they discussed the appraisal of calligraphy and painting, smelling, seeing, correcting, and photographing.

The first way to smell is to smell the scroll and smell if there is any peculiar smell, because the new painting is old and often leaves a special smell.

For example, the common methods used to make paper old are direct dyeing and fumigation. Among them, edible vinegar is used in the direct dyeing method, and the fumigation method is to light coconut shells or incense and smoke with smoke. After many days of smoking, the paper will take on a light brown color, very similar to the old paper.

Therefore, whether the paper is made with either of these two methods or with other chemicals, there will be a foul smell left on it. And if it is a pharmaceutical drug, it is likely to leave a very pungent smell on it.

And if it's an old painting, we should be able to smell the smell of pressing the bottom of the box. Experienced experts can even smell the ancient rhyme.

Although Meng Zitao was not very experienced in calligraphy and painting, he could still smell the peculiar smell, so he stepped forward and sniffed slightly.

Immediately, he vaguely felt the smell of vinegar coming, and if the paper was old, it should have been treated using the direct dyeing method. In addition, the counterfeiters probably used other methods to get rid of the vinegar smell, but apparently not completely.

At this time, Meng Zitao felt that the painting was probably an imitation, and the reason why he did not say that it was a fake was because the level of this painting was also very high, and it could already be called art, and it could not be simply classified as a fake.

However, despite this discovery, Mencius is not 100% sure that this painting must be a fake, after all, in the process of hundreds of years of circulation, there will be many accidents, maybe someone accidentally spilled vinegar on the scroll, leaving the smell, which is also very likely.

So, Mencius began to use the second method, look.

Look refers to looking at the paper of the work, to see if it is old paper, whether it is the paper of the time.

Generally speaking, paper that has been passed down for hundreds of years is more delicate because of oxidation. Also a little crunchy.

To put it simply, it's similar to the feeling of washing more clothes after we have been wearing clothes for a long time. And like clothes, the color of the paper will also change after a long period of oxidation, specifically, the color is darker than the new paper, and the older it is, the darker the color.

And the painting in front of me, when you touch it, feels very thin and delicate. Its degree of oxidation is also relatively high, just like a person is old, the paper looks a little weathered, as if you don't even dare to touch it, and it will break immediately when you touch it.

Seeing this situation, Meng Zitao felt a little strange in his heart, because as far as the paper is concerned, it is indeed right, so in this case, why should he put vinegar, is it really because he accidentally got vinegar as he thought? But looking at the appearance of the three brothers, they should be very precious to this painting, how could they be so careless?

After thinking for a while, Meng Zitao didn't come up with a reason, so he put this question aside first, and then looked at the payment and seal.

He first looked at the payment, the author's pen force through the back of the paper, and Yun Shouping's style is also similar, with his eyesight, I don't think there is much problem.

Then, he looked at whether the seal was correct, and then whether it was the ink of that period, so as to determine whether it was true or false.

At present, the level of counterfeiters is also high and low, some of the things produced are fake at a glance, and some can be fake.

Those who are able to make the fake and the real fake, in order to make their carefully aged ancient paintings more credible, often engrave the artist's seal from the catalogue or the seal.

Then, the old ink clay that has been handed down from the beginning is used to cover the old paintings. Doing so will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of the appraiser's identification, and even make a mistake because of an oversight.

The painting in front of him, the seal should be no problem, but the color of the seal made Meng Zitao have a floating feeling, which made him have some doubts in his heart.

After "looking", it is right, it refers to the comparison with the author's style, pen and other characteristics, which is Mencius Tao's weakness, he did not force it, read it once, and felt that he could not judge the authenticity with his own eyesight, so he skipped it.

The last method is to illuminate, that is, to use light or natural light to illuminate, after careful observation, Mencius found that the paper is thin and delicate, and the feel is consistent. But the performance of the ink is a little wrong, the ink color on the scene conforms to the characteristics of natural oxidation, while the ink color on the end is not the same.

Seeing this, Meng Zitao also had a number in his heart, not surprisingly, this should be an imitation of a previous painting, but for some reason, it was not settled, and after it was discovered, it was dealt with accordingly, so it led to all kinds of contradictions.

So, Meng Zitao used the ability again, and the result was the same as he guessed.

However, Meng Zitao still didn't figure it out, how could the other party use vinegar on the drawing paper, because it was completely unnecessary, could it be that it was because he was careless, as he thought?

Meng Zitao has no intention of drilling the horns, since he can't figure it out, he doesn't want to. Next, he looked at the painting from beginning to end and found something problematic.

After ten or twenty minutes, just when the three brothers were waiting a little impatiently, Meng Zitao raised his head and said to the boss: "This gentleman, you said that this is your family's ancestor, right?"

"Yes, our family used to be a scholarly family, and there were people who used to be waiters or something, but when it came to the Republic of China, it declined because of the war, and finally passed on to our generation, leaving only this painting, think about it, it really responds to the old saying, rich but three generations!"

If he didn't know the result just now, with the expression of the middle-aged man, Meng Zitao would really think that this painting was his family's ancestral heirloom, and now, he couldn't help but slander: "If you don't become an actor, it's a big loss to the world film and television industry!"

"Then do you know anything about this painting?" asked Meng Zitao again.

The second child opened his mouth and said: "I understand, our family's ancestral paintings, can you not understand? The person who painted this painting is called Yun Shouping, who was a master in the early Qing Dynasty, and his paintings are very valuable, and we have checked, and in the spring of this year, one of his paintings was photographed for nearly 40 million. No matter how cheap our painting is, it can't be cheaper. ”

Meng Zitao said with a smile: "Three, since you know the value of this painting, why don't you put it up for auction? With Yun Shouping's popularity, you should be able to fetch a high price." If you sell it to me, it won't be that good price. ”

The boss said: "This little brother, to tell you the truth, we do want to go to the auction, but the auction is a lot of fees, and if it sells well at the bottom, it is not very cost-effective." Besides, if we go to the regular auction now, we will basically have to wait until next year, and we still have some things to do at home, so it is not convenient. ”

The other two brothers said that this was indeed the case, and the second said, "If it weren't for the urgent money, I wouldn't have agreed to sell it here." ”

Meng Zitao smiled slightly, did not express an opinion on this, and said: "Three, I suggest that you should invite another Gao Ming. ”

The boss said, "What, you can't afford it, or you can't make a decision?"

The third child's expression was a little displeased, and he said: "It's really good as the old saying goes, there is no hair on the mouth, you can't do things well, your boss doesn't even look at it, you just push it away, replace it with me, I have to beat you, call your boss out quickly." ”

As soon as Meng Zitao's heart moved, he said casually: "I am the boss here. ”

"You (boss)?" Meng Zitao's words made the brothers look very surprised, but this reaction is also normal, in the eyes of ordinary people, the owner of the antique shop should be the same as the appraiser, they are all elderly, but I didn't expect to come here, both of them are so young.

Meng Zitao nodded and confirmed again: "If you don't believe it, you can ask others." ”

As soon as the words fell, the third child stood up: "Okay, since he can't afford it, what are we still doing here?"

The second child also stood up and muttered with some disdain: "That's it, I thought that such a big store must have strength, but I didn't expect the boss to be like this, it's really disappointing!"

Meng Zitao looked at them with a smile and didn't answer, this was because he felt that today's things were a little weird, and in order to avoid trouble, it was better to wait and see what happened.

It's not that Meng Zitao is afraid of them, but if he really gets angry or jumps like thunder as he thinks, he will follow their wishes, and he doesn't want the other party to be satisfied.

At this time, I saw the boss glaring back, and then he said a little embarrassed: "This boss, they don't know how to talk, please forgive me for the offense!"

Meng Zitao smiled and waved his hand, indicating that it was nothing.

The boss smiled again and asked, "Boss, can you give us an estimate of the price of this painting?"

Meng Zitao sneered in his heart, and said with a smile: "This is really a little inconvenient." ”

Lao Sanpi said with a smile: "It's not convenient to estimate the price, if you don't understand or want money, just say it, what to pretend!"