Meng Zitao took out 50 yuan and gave it to the stall owner, in fact, with this price, it can also prove that this is not a fake, the reason is very simple, from the previous three aspects of jade, color and craftsmanship, it can be so realistic, and the cost is unlikely to be less than 50 yuan, think about it and know that it is impossible to sell at a loss in business. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

After buying this jade Xuanji, Meng Zitao looked at the other things on the stall, all of them were some miscellaneous items, and the price was not expensive, but it didn't mean much. Before leaving, he glanced again and found a copper hot pot at the stall owner's feet, with a thick layer of black clay on the surface, which looked bad but did not seem to be defective.

When Meng Zitao saw the style of this hot pot, his heart moved slightly, so he begged to come over, studied it, didn't feel anything wrong, there was no shortage of anything, asked the price, and the stall owner said that it was only 50 yuan, so he bought it, not that this thing is very precious, but wants to study it.

When Meng Zitao walked to the door of Zhengyixuan with his things, he happened to see Wang Zhixuan chatting with a man of his age and about fifty years old.

Wang Zhixuan raised his head just in time to notice Meng Zitao, and hurriedly invited Meng Zitao into the house.

After Meng Zitao came in, Wang Zhixuan introduced the two parties, the man's name was Wu Yunxiong, his friend for many years, a native of Xijing, and also a person from the industry, doing antique business in Xijing.

After a few words of greeting, Wang Zhixuan noticed the hot pot in Meng Zitao's hand and said with a smile: "How did you think of buying such a hot pot?"

Meng Zitao said with a smile: "I think it may be relatively old directly, and it is not expensive, so I bought it and studied it." ”

Wu Yunxiong heard this and said, "Shopkeeper Meng, I don't doubt you, but how do you know that this thing is old?"

Meng Zitao explained with a smile: "Although this hot pot has not been cleaned out, some clues can still be seen, and this hot pot is made of raw brass as a whole. The walls of the pot are thick and heavy, and the string lines are faintly visible on them, which should have been cast and then rotated. The roundness is very standardized, and the chimney in the middle is hammered with copper sheets (read wei). ”

"There are one or two small holes on the hot pot that are traces of long-term use, the center part of the pot lid is a flash yellow after the copper ring, there used to be an old saying, 'copper inlaid copper, foolish', which means that copper and copper inlaid together will not be too firm, this is probably the late Qing Dynasty or the poor craftsmanship of the craftsmen in the Republic of China to leave an impression on people, the copper inlaid ring mouth of this pot lid is indeed very strong, and there is no place to see 'fooling'. Uncle Wang, please lend me a piece of cotton cloth. ”

"Good. ”

Wang Zhixuan understood what Meng Zitao meant, and found a clean cotton cloth and gave it to Meng Zitao.

Meng Zitao used a cotton cloth to explore a place on the hot pot for a while, and then said: "As long as the real old thing is not corroded by hard tools such as sandpaper, knives, beatings, and strong acid and alkali solutions, the slurry on it will not be easily destroyed." You see, I wiped it with a cotton cloth for a while, and the heavy pulp came out, and the old taste was impressive, indicating that it had existed for a long time. ”

Wu Yunxiong obviously still wanted to take the school examination for Meng Zitao, and asked, "Then do you know what period of copper hot pot this is?"

Meng Zitao immediately gave the answer: "It's hard to say the specific time, but I think the production time should be in the early Qing Dynasty, no later than the middle of the Qing Dynasty." ”

Wu Yunxiong asked again, "Oh, why do you say that?"

Meng Zitao explained with a smile: "Generally speaking, a practical device must conform to the law that the present is better than the past, and in short, the design of the product should become more and more humane and practical scientific principles." Using this concept of design evolution, we can deduce that after hundreds of years of use and improvement, the product design principles of the late Qing Dynasty must be more reasonable and applicable than those of the early Qing Dynasty. ”

"I don't know if you have seen the copper hot pot in the late Qing Dynasty, the copper hot pot at that time, one is the furnace is high, and the other is the chimney is high. The high furnace inlet air and oxygen intake are large, and the high chimney is 'pulling out the fire', which can maintain a certain fire momentum, so that the water in the pot can maintain a certain temperature for a long time. This kind of hot pot is more practical, and the current copper hot pot basically continues this style. ”

"Looking at this copper hot pot, the plain copper chimney is short and thick, lacking the function of 'pulling out the fire', and the height of the furnace's mouth is only less than 3 centimeters, so there will be no more oxygen entering the furnace to support combustion. This kind of pot is certainly not very easy to make, and the craftsmen's understanding and application of the principle of combustion and combustion, compared with the late Qing Dynasty, is obviously lower than a level, and it is still in a relatively primitive design concept. ”

Speaking of this, Meng Zitao asked Wang Zhixuan again for a Kangxi Tongbao and a Qianlong Tongbao, and then put the two copper coins on the hot pot.

"You should also understand that the purity of brass smelting to the Qianlong period in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, has reached a peak level, manifested as a golden and pure color, and high density, mass proportion is also large, sometimes we see the Qianlong period of brass mirrors, or the original copper work of furniture in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, can produce this contrast feeling. ”

"The best way to identify bronze ware is to compare with copper standards, and Qing Dynasty copper standards are the easiest to find is copper coins, I chose two Qing Dynasty brass coins, one is Kangxi Tongbao, one is Qianlong Tongbao, in the natural state of the pulp is intact, put these two copper coins on the lid of the hot pot at the same time, observe the difference in copper color. ”

"Through comparative observation, Kangxi Tongbao's copper flashing purple is close to the pot body, while Qianlong Tongbao's copper flashing yellow is similar to the copper color of the lid inlay, which is likely to be supplemented. ”

Wu Yunxiong agreed with Meng Zitao's explanation after thinking for a moment, and then he asked about the cleaning of oil stains on the surface of this hot pot.

Meng Zitao told him that as long as the oil stains were soaked in diluted white vinegar water for a period of time, the aged oil stains on it should be peeled off from the surface of the pot, and if there was still some dirt, it could be cleaned with washing powder water, and he did the same, and finally cleaned it up, and found that this was a fairly complete and exquisite copper hot pot in the early Qing Dynasty, without any defects inside and outside.

After explaining the matter of the copper hot pot, Wu Yunxiong asked Meng Zitao a few questions about antiques, and Meng Zitao couldn't understand why he had so many questions, but seeing that Wang Zhixuan didn't say it, he estimated that there should be something hidden in it, so he also answered patiently.

After chatting for a while, Wang Zhixuan asked with a smile, "Xiao Meng, when did you come back?"

Meng Zitao replied: "I just came back yesterday, but I have something to do tomorrow and I have to go out again." ”

"In such a hurry. ”

"No way, this time it's a rush. ”

"And when will you be back?"

"I guess it's only ten days at most. ”

"Oh. ”

Wang Zhixuan nodded, and then said: "You have been in the capital for a while, and there are more things, so I won't delay you." ”

"Okay, just call me if there's something. ”

When Meng Zitao went out, Wang Zhixuan said to Wu Yunxiong with a smile: "Old Wu, you should be able to have confidence in Xiao Meng now, right?"

Wu Yunxiong sighed: "I really deserve to be a famous teacher and apprentice, my basic skills are very solid, and I know everything, I am a little unbelievable." It stands to reason that he should be a suitable candidate, but I'm afraid he has a problem with his on-the-spot performance. ”

"You can rest assured of that. Wang Zhixuan waved his hand: "With my understanding of Xiao Meng, his temperament is completely passable, and it must be no problem for you to ask him to help him." ”

"Will he say yes then?"

"It's not a crime, and in my face, unless there is a conflict in time, he will definitely agree. ”

"Oh, well, I'll think about it again, it's going to be a while anyway. ”

"Okay, but I'd advise you to decide as soon as possible, I'll always give him a little time to prepare. ”

"Okay, I'll ...... as soon as possible"

On the other side, Meng Zitao walked out of Zhengyixuan with some confusion, shook his head and continued to walk towards his antique shop.

When he got there, Meng Zitao learned from Hu Yuanliang that the antique shopkeeper's business was normal during this time, and his turnover was also rising steadily. He checked the account book, it was really good, praised Hu Yuanliang, and said with a smile that according to this trend, he would definitely give a big red envelope during the New Year.

After solving some trivial matters in the store, Meng Zitao was about to go to He Wanyi's side to relieve the pain of lovesickness, but as soon as he was about to get up, he saw Lao Niu walking in with the stall owner just now.

Meng Zitao gave Lao Niu an inquiring look, and Lao Niu said with a smile: "Let me introduce you, this is a distant relative of Lao Liu, you just call him Four Fingers." ”

Meng Zitao had just noticed that the stall owner only had four fingers on his left hand, so he could understand how the nickname came from. I heard that Four Fingers was a relative of the sixth child, and he was very polite, but he didn't have much of a burden in his heart about picking up a small leak from Four Fingers just now, after all, he didn't know Four Fingers before, it was just a normal transaction.

Besides, the four fingers promised so happily just now, and they also knew that he should have made money.

Four fingers didn't mention what happened just now, and said with a smile on his face: "Shopkeeper Meng, let's be born and cooked twice, how about you take a look at these things?"

As he spoke, he took out a few things wrapped in cloth from his pocket, and when he opened them, he saw that they were all jade.

Meng Zitao glanced at it and knew what these things were, they were all jade ambers.

The word jade amber is found in the "Zhou Li", which uses it as one of the "six instruments", "to honor the West with white amber". It is not possible to prove which type of jade amber in ancient ritual vessels belongs to.

The earliest jade amber found by archaeology is the tiger head pattern on the jade cong of the Liangzhu culture. Since then, all dynasties have round carvings or flake tiger-shaped wares, among which there are many tiger-shaped objects in the Shang Dynasty, and there are also more jade-shaped jades with tiger-shaped themes from the Zhou to Han dynasties. From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, jade amber was often used for ornamentation.

Meng Zitao nodded and said, "Then I'll take a look first." ”

Four Fingers smiled and said, "Okay, you look first." ”

Meng Zitao took a moment to carefully study all the six jade ambers that he had brought from his four fingers, raised his head and asked, "Do you want to give me all these things?"

Four Fingers smiled and nodded: "You just give a number." ”

Meng Zitao asked: "Let's talk about the ugly things in the front, I have a taboo about the newly unearthed pit." ”

Four Fingers hurriedly said: "Don't worry, these jade artifacts are not newly unearthed pit vessels, which I believe can be seen with your fiery eyes." ”

Meng Zitao smiled slightly, of course he could see it, otherwise, he wouldn't have said what he had just said.

"Since you were brought by Lao Niu and a relative of Lao Liu, then I won't take advantage of you, I will give you 30,000 yuan for these six things, what do you think?"

The four fingers were stunned for a moment, then they smiled and gave a thumbs up to Meng Zitao: "I heard Brother Niu say that you are very righteous when you see it today." ”

Meng Zitao looked at Lao Niu with a smile, and then said: "Okay, don't compliment me, do you want cash or transfer?"

Four Fingers said with some excitement: "It's best if you have cash, and if you don't, you can transfer money." ”

Meng Zitao directly took out three stacks of banknotes, put them on the table and said, "You can order them." ”

"Hey, what's so good about that, I believe you. As he spoke, the four fingers directly put away the money.

Meng Zitao smiled: "If something goes wrong, don't blame me." ”

"How can that? ”

Four fingers smiled, then he rubbed his hands, and said a little embarrassedly: "Shopkeeper Meng, can I invite you to dinner at noon?"

Meng Zitao saw that he had something to do, and said bluntly: "If there is something, you can say it directly." ”

Four fingers looked at the old cow, and when he saw that the old cow signaled that it was okay, he said, "This ...... I want to bother you with something, can you give me some pointers on these things?"

Meng Zitao believes that Lao Niu is measured, and he has always believed that except for some unique skills, there is nothing bad to say, and there is always a reward for paying.

"I still have something to do today, so I'll skip the meal, but it's okay if I tell you about these things. First of all, I won't explain much about what jade amber is, you can check it yourself, Shang Dynasty jade amber has flakes and round carvings, round carving king balls are often realistic, and the whole body is carved with different yang lines like back lines, moire, scales, etc. Amber is mostly open-mouthed, with a longer tail and shorter legs, and the flaky jade amber is a bit abstract, and the body appears tight. Stout with an open mouth and curly tails. ”

"The jade amber of the Western Zhou Dynasty is mostly flaky and small, decorated with cloud and thunder patterns and yin line cloud patterns, and the jade amber of the Western Zhou Dynasty is more perforated and should be used for ornamentation, so these two jade amber should be in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. ”

Meng Zitao took out two of the jade ambers, and then brushed over the characteristics of the jade amber in the Spring and Autumn Period, and then said: "The other four jade amber should be in the Warring States period if nothing else. In this period, the jade amber is more exquisite, the shape is novel and changeable, and it is often used in combination with the jade group ......"

Mencius talked eloquently, explained the characteristics of jade amber in various periods, and said some tips for identification, and he simply talked about the things he had just bought from the four fingers. (To be continued.) )