Before the birth of banks, pawnbroking was the main source of financing for the private sector. In contrast to banks, pawnshops do not need to conduct credit checks, do not require third-party guarantees, and can pawn as long as they are valuable. Regular customers in the industry trade, each of them carefully exchanged for equal value, never advertised, never lacked business, only by word of mouth. Science and technology bring convenience, means are renovated, and when the co-prosperity bubble carnival is carnival, once you return to real life, the operating rules of the world, the monopoly of resources, and the society is still the same.

In ancient times, there was a saying of "sitting on Jia to do business". The stall market, where street vendors gather, used to be one of the upstream sources of antique dealers' purchases, and it has a bit of a "warehousing" flavor. Now the imitations are stalled, fakes are everywhere, and connoisseurs can't "pick up" the treasure from it, so they silently withdraw and stay in the store to entertain customers. Most of the local customers are insiders, buying real and selling real, consignment sales of high-quality products, introducing customers, and visiting the store mostly for "string goods" (that is, buying things from his store, putting them in my store at a higher price and then selling them). This kind of buyer is naturally very picky about the price and quality of things, so they generally can't sell them at a large price. Brokers, there are also many elites, many of them are senior old "players", the reason why they are wronged in the periphery, most of them are not rich in funds, not widely sold, there are not a few "good families", and it is by no means that there is not enough eyesight and intelligence.

No matter how depressed the business economy is, no matter how chaotic the market is, the old store is still a long stream, selling genuine goods, with integrity, usually holding the thinking of relying on the goods to speak, I don't say much, I can buy if I understand, and don't buy if I don't understand. The authenticity of the old store is sold to discerning connoisseurs and to senior collectors. The store takes this as a livelihood, the left hand in, the right hand out, a lifetime of countless antiquities, real money in and out, no room for mistakes. If you buy the wrong item, you may not be able to get up for many years. But if you are a little arrogant and conceited, you may make a big mistake, or even go bankrupt, and go out of business. Eat this mouthful, be good all the time, there will not be many experts who live for a long time, and the rest must be all legends, a pair of fiery eyes, a body of lessons and lessons, all of which are a lifetime of trembling and walking on thin ice. The goods bought by knowledgeable people are naturally the utensils themselves, and good inheritance can add points, but it will not put the cart before the horse. The goods, even if they are a good inheritance, do not pay for it. As for who passed it down and how it was passed down, these are just the cloak of propaganda. The authenticity of the goods is basically guaranteed, and it is also the premise of trust, so it is naturally widely patronized by collectors. Most years and months can not make a lot of money, but earn peace of mind, the store has been operating for several generations, good reputation, few fakes, the market is not good, and the market is not hungry, the market is prosperous, and hundreds of transactions are done in a month, that is, a few customers buy. Out of trust in the seller, the collector buys with confidence and dares to spend money. Expensive also admits that it is better to buy expensive than to buy fake.

The new store has no inventory, no regular customers, except for a few ordinary products, all of which are fakes. The shopkeeper was not a connoisseur at the beginning, so he aimed at the antique craze and took advantage of the situation to open a shop to make a profit. In the antique city, those who sell fakes make more money than those who sell real things, which refers to this kind of merchants. Whether it is true or false, it all depends on what you say, you can observe your words and looks, and you will be exquisite in all directions, and it is easier to win the trust of others and achieve "big business". Selling fakes is basically active in the periphery of the antique circle, waiting for first-time collectors or tourists from other places. These people are very powerful, complimentary, clever, sticky, greasy and sweet, no matter how rich and wise the customer is, but whenever a little vanity is caught, a little pride is used, the customer is killed without discussion. Even find someone to dress up as a mud monkey in the countryside, send ancestral treasures to the door, or the national treasure dug up at the construction site, and then a few people come up to rob, and then the head snake squeezes in to make trouble, a gang colludes to do a scam, pit fat pigs outside the field, the more people rob, the more he thinks it is a treasure, the more people say good, the more he dares to buy it with confidence, the tourists are coaxed by these vendors to forget everything, and the pig is killed and feels face.

Yuan Qiuhua once walked away, and received 2,000 yuan from the fake Xuande furnace. The shopkeeper came to the door to take over, and the price was eight hundred. She felt strange, "How can it be fake, and you are so happy to pay for it?" Who knew that he replied, "You say it's fake, is it fake? I think it's the real thing of the Ming Dynasty, not a civilian imitation, or an official imitation." Yuan Qiuhua used it as garbage, threw it to the shopkeeper, and confiscated the money. The shopkeeper picked it up and placed it in the most conspicuous place on the shelf. A Fujianese saw it and wanted to buy a stove. The shopkeeper offered 10,000 yuan. The Fujianese counteroffered two thousand. An old man wearing gold-wire glasses came in from outside the door, fiddled with his hands on the stove, and said that he wanted to offer five thousand. As soon as the cash was taken out, the shopkeeper made a quick deal. The stove was taken away by the old man, and as soon as he left the store, the Fujian people caught up with the old man and asked, "This Xuande furnace, is it genuine, or is it a fake?" The old man raised his glasses and asked rhetorically, "Do you know cloisonné?" The Fujian people nodded. The pigment after the enamel is blended, and it is called cloisonne when fired on ceramics, fired into glass on building tiles, and fired on metal utensils. Yuan Qiuhua paid close attention to the whereabouts of the stove. She invited the two of them to Bogu Zhai for tea. The old man pointed out that it was not a Xuande furnace, but a Jingtai furnace, and said it.

Jingtai is the name of Zhu Qiyu, the seventh emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and the use of enamel techniques reached * during his eight years of reign. Jingtai is the son of Xuande. Emperor Xuande attached great importance to the production of bronze and the smelting of copper, and Emperor Jingtai was very familiar with the production of bronze during his childhood, and he liked to cast bronze very much. In terms of bronze casting, the technology of the Xuande period has been perfected, and there can be no greater progress, so the Cloisonne Emperor has found a new way from the color aspect, and made different styles of patterns with different colors of enamel on the surface of the finished bronze, and the pattern is inlaid with gold, silver and copper wires, and finally put into the kiln for high-temperature firing, and the cloisonne system is refined.

Yuan Qiuhua was confused when he heard it, and interjected: Forgive me for being lonely and unheard, cloisonné is either porcelain or jewelry, and it has never been in the shape of a tripod?

The old man smiled slightly. The situation of cloisonné and Xuande furnace is similar, and the emperors of the Ming Dynasty are basically only imitating and cannot be surpassed. In the Qing Dynasty, from the Qianlong period, cloisonne began to be made again. The cloisonné of Kangxi and Yongzheng was made during the Qianlong period, but it was engraved with the inscription made during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods.

Yuan Qiuhua thoughtfully: Jingtai's Xuande furnace, the son imitates Lao Tzu!

Fujian people suddenly realized: Xuande furnace, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty are basically only imitating.

He negotiated with the old man, added it to 15,000 yuan, and then quickly disappeared into the sunset, as if he was afraid of being snatched away.

Xuande furnace, Ming imitation, Qing imitation, Republic of China imitation, Henan imitation in the 80s, Suzhou imitation in the 90s, Xi'an imitation in the 200s. In the Republic of China, only the imperial kiln, the imperial system, the official imitation, and the high imitation were called antiques. The counterfeiting of the Xuande furnace* appeared in the Wanli period, and the imitations made by Gan Wentang in Nanjing and Zhou Wenfu in Suzhou were only one level different from the real Xuande furnace, and they were all sold out at that time. Zhao Ruzhen's "Antique Guide" notes, "Yan's furnaces are all those who robbed the Xuan furnace without money, and they are all owned and not made by them." "Yutang Qing Play" is said to be the name of Yan Donglou, the son of Yan Song, Yan Donglou, Yan Donglou does not cast a furnace himself, but loves to collect good copper furnaces, and the "Yutang Qing Play" hall is made on it, according to Yan's bronze. The Xuande furnace with the bottom section of "Yutang Qing Play" is therefore considered to be a well-known model of "Xuande Furnace". Although the antique dealer failed to collect the genuine product, he did collect the high imitation, and he couldn't help but be happy.

Yuan Qiuhua checked the information and asked Mr. Luo to confirm that it is a fake nowadays, no copper, no iron, just aluminum, not casting, not forging, not sand turning, or inverted mold, not even low imitation.

The old man said: If something worth 100,000 is only sold for 10,000, and you don't have to look at it, it will be fake, which pig's head will sell 90,000 profits for no reason?

Later, Yuan Qiuhua learned that the old man was a consultant hired by the shopkeeper. Thinking of this scene, Yuan Qiuhua was dumbfounded, it seems that the magic of fakes is great, and it can satisfy people's desire to get rich, it doesn't matter whether they really get rich or not, the key is whether this strong desire is satisfied. Medicine, given to the wise, will be smarter, given to the fool, the more you eat, the more stupid you are. The shopkeeper never cared about taking medicine, bought a fake for 50 yuan, sold it for 600 yuan, bought a fake for 200, sold it for 5000, his motto is, fakes are not terrible, and not making money is the most terrible. What he said was, the person I sold thought it was true, and the person you bought it thought it was true, so this is true! Only the one who took over at a high price in the end knew that it was fake! Yuan Qiuhua didn't want to reason with him more, and he didn't expect to change him anything. She neither supports nor opposes, anyway, everyone chooses the path, everyone goes, and everyone bears the responsibility. If you make money like taking medicine, you will be numb, and the price of his next "medicine" is 20,000.

The officials in Guangzhou are all outsiders, and those who make a lot of money in Guangzhou are basically outsiders. The shops are polarized, and so are the market vendors, each doing their own business, and the well water does not interfere with the river water. Those who sell fakes should take a shot and change places. China has a vast land and resources, and he has traveled all over the city and countryside, and 100 million people have bought one, and he has also made a fortune. Most of those who sell genuine goods are "merchants". Many years ago, I went to the countryside to "shovel the land", and I could "find some old goods to go to the city for two change". Nowadays, it is generally a "fixed stall" and a "fixed time", and the "feng shui treasure land" of the zero-rent (daily rent) antique market takes the unsalable things in your own store or other people's stores and tries your luck. The characteristics of antiques in each city, the market is hot and cold, they are like migratory birds shuttling through the antique bazaars around the country, buying at low prices from all over the country, and then selling at high prices elsewhere to earn the difference, running the market to catch up, both buying and shipping, the industry jokingly called "the south to the north, the west to the east". They are half-connoisseurs, with an unusually keen sense of smell and eyesight, and are the first level of the antique business, they pick out good goods from households that have no common sense of collecting, and then sell them to antique dealers who open shops. Sometimes when encountering real antiques, the stall owner himself does not know the goods, and is "leaked" by the store.

Bogu Zhai's fixed seller, a young man from Henan, received a jade bear in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, and the price was only 50 yuan. entered the store to resell, saying that it was Song Yu, and the price was 2,000 yuan. Mr. Luo said that the things are very good (big road goods), no dirt (no Yuqin), excellent condition (ornamental), not even small cracks (less than the generation), can be described as flawless (handicrafts). The ruble complained bitterly, the derogatory is the buyer, and the buyer "picks a thorn", which shows that this thing, in fact, people want it. If you praise things a lot, there will be no drama, which means that the things are not in the right way (Liaoning Xiuyu, the jade quality is average), or it is not true (general products, new workers), and no one wants it. bargained, and finally sold for 150 yuan. Yuan Qiuhua looked at the grinding groove of its grinding stone, the traces of grinding, the carving of the carving, the exquisiteness of the craftsmanship, the charm, the phosgene, the degree of aging, and the pulping shell also conformed to the characteristics of the age, and the jade bear had calcified in many places, attached to the so-called chicken bone white, and concluded that it was at least a cultural relic of the Hongshan period.

The so-called leakage, to put it bluntly, is to rely on the owner of the goods does not know how to do it, and the peerless treasures are taken away at the price of scrap, which is called the leakage. When you pick up gold and sell it in the market, you earn the difference in price from another place. They earn all the hard money, in addition to the pick, the road fee, there are not a few left in a year, it is good not to lose, but they are all scattered, love "free and easy", have the style of rangers, can't stand so many rules and regulations in the factory, would rather set up a stall in the open air, run all over the country, and receive goods while playing, which is equal to travel.

The store has a high vision, does not look at people, only looks at the goods, the goods are not on the right road, the whole body is a famous brand, and it is also directly sent to customers. If the goods are good, they will be in tatters, and the famous family will also be treated as a guest. In normal times, regardless of receiving and selling, the eyesight speaks. But there will also be some "unscrupulous", this person is bold and dares to do anything. The ancient tomb has no ability to dig, and it specializes in digging nearby village tombs, and it has no ability and no interest. What treasures can there be in civilian tombs, it is nothing more than copper coins, jade plugs, shrouds, and antique dealers who hate this kind of people the most, but these people are very stubborn and dead-skinned. How dare the antique dealer accept it, not only is the value not high, but the evil spirit is also extremely heavy, so he can only send away some money, don't want things, take the money and drink, uncle, don't come again!

Another type of trouble is the so-called excavated artifacts, especially bronzes. In the early days of reform and opening up, Henan was full of ancient tombs, tomb robbers took the treasures dug up to the south, the train from Henan to Guangzhou arrived at three o'clock in the morning, they came out of the railway station, set up stalls along the north road of the people, and sold cultural relics to people who came to Taobao at a low price. In any era, there is an underground sale. In some years, many of the most normal transactions also needed to be traded privately. These disgraceful bronzes were hidden by the buyer for 20 years and sold at a high price while the antique fever was hot. Bronze, that is, copper-tin alloy, was widely used before the Spring and Autumn Period, also known as the Xia, Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Periods for the Bronze Age. According to national regulations, bronzes before the Qing Dynasty were not allowed to be bought and sold, and individuals could collect them, but they could not be traded, let alone sold to foreigners privately, and they could not be realized. Antique dealers don't dare to buy it at all, and whoever buys it will break the law, and if they don't do it, they will have to go to prison for ten or eight years. Of course, some bosses will also accept first-class cultural relics such as bronze swords, tripods, zun, rhino horn cups, ivory mats, etc., and hand them over, and it is also very important to have a good relationship with them, which everyone understands.

The antique market is divided into three levels, the lowest level is the antique shop, the antique city, the market stall, and the thrift market, the secondary market is the registered art brokerage company, the cultural relics store, and the pawn dealer, and the highest-end market is the domestic and foreign cultural relics auction.

Tianguang Market in Guangzhou, the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China for its heyday, in the area of Guangzhou Changshou West Road to the beginning of the place, mainly sell some old furniture, old utensils and other relatively cheap second-hand goods, as well as some antiques and calligraphy and painting and so on. After the invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance, the warlords fought each other, and the antiquities flowed from the court and the Great Outdoors, and a large number of them were scattered in the society and fell into the hands of antique dealers in various places. Merchants smuggled it to Guangzhou for re-export, and Tianguangxu became a distribution center for antiques and toys in Guangzhou at that time. Including Rong Geng, Shang Chengzuo, Zhu Jieqin and other scholars, they also often visit the Tianguang Market in Guangzhou.

In 1948, Shang Chengzuo and Rong Geng both returned to Guangdong, and at the same time were hired as professors in the Department of Linguistics of the School of Literature of National Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. Living in Chen Yinke's former residence, No. 1 in the southeast district, Rong Geng lives on the second floor, Shang Chengzuo lives underground, and the two go to the antique street and the ghost market together. Rong Geng is good at distinguishing the authenticity of bronzes and buying the "Yue Wang Sword". In 1956, Rong Geng donated the "Yue Wang Sword" to the Guangzhou Museum, which has now become the treasure of the museum. In the 70s, Rong Geng donated his collection of calligraphy, paintings, and antiques in batches, including the Song people's "Cloud Mountain Map" and the Yu paintings of Zhu Zhishan, Ni Yuanlu and others. In the past 80 years, more than 10,000 books on ancient characters, gold and stone, archaeology, calligraphy and painting have been donated to the library of Sun Yat-sen University, many of which are rare rubbings and rare treasures. Shang Chengzuo donated the treasured "Monkey King Inkstone" to the Guangdong Provincial Museum. The monkey king inkstone is picked from Zhaoqing, carved and engraved by the famous sculptor Guo Lanxiang of Duanxi, the carving is fine, according to the shape of the fish brain jelly in the original stone, the monkey demeanor that grinds it out of the hand holding the longevity peach to eat, is vivid and lively. In the cave where the monkeys sit, dense forests are arranged on the left and right, and the composition is ingenious, which can be called a masterpiece.

From the reform and opening up to the mid-90s, most of the antique markets on Wenchang North Road were genuine, and you didn't need to be too eye-catching to find good things. Grandpa Lan used 10 yuan to buy several large bundles of rice paper from the Republic of China. 100 pieces of paper are equivalent to a penny per piece of paper, and now an old rice paper is worth 100 yuan, and money may not be able to buy it. Once Grandpa Lan took a palm-sized old pipa-shaped object to Yuan Qiuhua, she checked the information, it was originally called Sima Scale, commonly known as "戥"), the Qing Dynasty as a measuring tool for weighing gold and precious medicinal materials. Because of its reputation, many antique dealers in Beijing and Tianjin have made a special trip to set up stalls here, knowing that even foreign buyers will come here to shop for goods.

Since 1996, the source of genuine goods has gradually dried up. There are fewer and fewer genuine goods on the market, and there are more and more fakes, and I don't know where the real ones have gone? Even the old objects are gone, and at least the repaired things are old materials, and then they are repaired. On the market, the new is used to replace the old, and the ceramic items are the most, followed by bronze, wood carving, and bamboo carvings, and fakes are more expensive than the real thing, so how can there be so many leaks to pick up? Antique dealers go to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, or go to the overseas markets of Europe and the United States to "Taobao", and "hold the goods" and wait for the market to pick up. I firmly believe that "the fragrance of wine is not afraid of deep alleys", the masterpieces of masters, the fine works of antiques, after the tempering of time, will eventually shine, and the yellow sand will be exhausted to see gold! Even if it was dusty at that time, there would be a day when it would shine.

In the antique industry, whether it is Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain, or Tang and Song dynasty porcelain, whether it is modern calligraphy and painting, or ancient calligraphy and painting, whether it is Ming and Qing dynasty jade, or ancient jade, whether it is the four treasures of the paper, or bamboo and wood tooth corners, whether it is antique miscellaneous, or jewelry, there are experts in the industry who specialize in research and identification. For example, Lu Dawen, who sells porcelain, Deng Tao, who sells ancient paintings and ancient books, and Chen Huanke, who sells tablets and new and used books, etc. Everyone's professional knowledge and experience in defending forgeries are all lessons bought in the market with their own money. There is knowledge and vision, there will be economic benefits, these essentials of identifying authenticity, businessmen will not be passed on, and there are congenital conditions and character requirements for apprentices, still following the traditional skills inheritance method of "master with apprentice", one-to-one, point-to-point, hand-in-hand, and once a teacher, a lifelong teacher, like father and son.

To learn antiques, you need to be able to keep the loneliness, calm down, endure hardships, and have the patience of "three years of miscellaneous work, ten years of entering the industry", and even "choose a career, for a lifetime". Sitting on the cold bench, you should be willing to be ordinary, but be content and happy, no matter whether the market is good or the market is not prosperous, you always have a clear conscience, worthy of the ancestors of heaven and earth, and you don't have to burn incense and worship Buddha. Be in awe of antiques, and when looking at a bowl, hold it in both hands and bend downward, as if you are bowing to your ancestors. In an antique shop, you can't just "take it alone" when you take a thing, you have to "hold it together" with both hands, you can't just "pinch the horn and hand it over" with your hands to hand over a thing, you have to "ride a horse", just like crossing a river and walking on a bridge, carefully "passing" from my hand to your hand.

Unless there is internal communication, or mutual help, the appraisal will not tell the truth, let alone valuation. If you find that there is a problem with the goods taken out by the seller, the store only needs to put the mouth of the utensils down and gently place them on the counter to show the seller to look at it.

The seller said, "How much does the expert of the Treasure Appraisal Club set the price", and the merchant will answer, "The expert uses his mouth, we use the money, please help me close the door when you go out". It means that the pricing of experts is not recognized by the market. How many people in today's society are willing to do things that have no name and no profit? I thought I had hit a big trap, but I didn't expect to run into a big trap. If you ask an expert for appraisal and say "true," you have to pay, and if you say "it's not right," you will also pay, and he says, "I don't understand," will you give money? For the sake of money, the expert "understands" everything. Free appraisal, you sell to experts at the price set by experts, will experts buy it? Is there anyone on the scene who wants it? Such a warm atmosphere, high-end opportunities, you don't test the water, come to the deserted store, spy on my heritage?

The seller said, "Please ask me how much this collection is worth," and the merchant would reply, "I'm sorry, I don't know." Otherwise, you move your legs and ask someone else." Meaning, knowing can't tell you either. If you say too much, you don't sell at the price you wanted, and you will feel fooled. If it is said that it is cheap, if it is sold at a good price, it will feel like a lie to you. The left and right are not good, but the reputation is bad, so sell high and sell low.

This is the businessman, who does not do things absolutely or die at any time, and tries to leave as much leeway as possible. Businessmen, what they pay attention to is their connections. The man with the horse pole is mighty and majestic, and he will also "step on thunder" and "fall into the pit". If you understand it, you can buy it, and if you don't understand it, you won't buy it, and in the antique market, "no real or fake" is indeed a "business rule" that has been established since ancient times. Fakes have been available in all dynasties, high imitation in China is an industry since ancient times, spend a small amount of money to buy a big baby, this is called "picking up leaks", spend a lot of money to buy a fake, called "punching the eye", in case of "punching the eye", resorting to the court is very rare. No matter how lively it is, it will be a spectator to eat melons and watch the mess, and the business will never have much to do. Everyone does their own business, do not offend customers, do not offend peers, leave a line of favor, and see each other well in the future, in order to make money.

It's not that the store doesn't buy and sell, and the good goods are stocked up first, which is the high price given by foresight and vision, and the price is high when you buy it, and the price is bound to be high when you sell it. Keeping repeat customers is based on craftsmanship. The cruelty of the rivers and lakes is here, enthusiasm alone is not enough, the craftsmanship has its own merits, the income is different, the skills are in place, and the fight is mind and bearing. The real thing is not put out, and most of the transactions are private regular customers. Imitation in texture, technology, and the real product is very similar, in addition to the year is not the same, such a high imitation, official imitation, royal imitation, in fact, also has a certain value, but in the transaction separately agreed, or clearly marked price code, Tong Suo is not deceived.

For example, an imitation Qianlong vase, such as marked as a "Qianlong" vase, is generally known to be an antique porcelain vase, but if it is said to be a product in the Qianlong period, a fine product of the kiln, or an official kiln imperial system, or even the Qing Palace dispersed, Qianlong's "Shiqu Baoji" on the things, it should not be, a few hundred yuan to buy an imitation, do not hurt the muscles and bones, defraud tens of thousands, it is to hurt the heavens and reason, deceive people hundreds of thousands, it is undoubtedly a crime. Besides, there are people outside the human world, once the incident happens, it will inevitably lead to disaster, everything has cause and effect, who will the heavens forgive?

Or under the guise of collecting, do something else, carry private goods, and have other calculations. I can't go up the realm, I can't open my vision, I can't enter the high-level circle of friends, and I have been rolling in the mud for half my life. Some earn money for a year in January, and some suffer for a year and can't earn back the ticket money.

In order not to spend money to find a store master to identify, collectors pretend to sell antiques to see the attitude of merchants towards the collection, if they do not buy it, they think it may be fake, and if they ask the price to buy, they think it is genuine. In fact, as soon as the merchant looks at the collection, he understands the other party's intention and purpose, so he still can't hear the truth.