Chapter 82 Ming Xuande Furnace

"Brother Wang, can I get started and take a look?" Liu Dong had already remembered the rules of the antique shop in his heart, even if he knew that Wang Haitao would not refuse now, he did not forget to ask. Of course, the white gloves were unprepared because Liu Dong had just entered the industry. But thinking about it, Wang Haitao won't care about this.

"Hehe, no problem, brother just look at it!" Wang Haitao said indifferently.

The so-called antiques placed here are basically damaged or worthless objects. Even if it is accidentally damaged by Liu Dong, it doesn't matter. It's not worth much anyway.

After getting permission again, Liu Dong picked up a piece of red porcelain from the second layer of the steel shelf with a look of joy and caution. Among all the large and small categories of antiques, in addition to jade, his favorite is porcelain, not only because of its gorgeous appearance and long history, but also because in the carving, many jade and wood carvings are traditional porcelain shapes. Among them, the most representative are the firewood kiln, Ru kiln, Jun kiln, Guan kiln, Ge kiln and Ding kiln, which are famous kiln porcelain in ancient times.

For example, the famous Xuande furnace, when it was fired, it was borrowed from the standard shape of these ancient kilns.

Of course, Liu Dong picked up this red bottle the first time he got his hands on it, also because it was one of the few undamaged objects among all the antiques on this steel frame.

'Carmine Orbital Pastel Vase' is the name of the porcelain in Liu Dong's hand, of course, the reason why he knows it is thanks to the credit of Li Lao's notebook. In the introduction to porcelain, there is a detailed description of this carmine porcelain. Liu Dong remembers its origin and appreciation characteristics very clearly.

And this 15 centimeters high skimming pastel bottle, with a slender neck and a beautiful bottle body, on both sides of the bottle body bulging outwards is also depicted 'magpie kicking branches' pattern, red flowers, green leaves, stems and branches, plus wings about to fly black feather magpie, the lines are smooth, the whole picture is very vivid.

The carmine bottle body is depicted with a single line of smooth entwined lotus patterns, and the white glaze of the bottle mouth and bottom foot, although it has been precipitated by time, is still smooth and clean, smooth and meticulous, without the slightest feeling of hand-holding. In ancient times, except for the official kiln, the private kiln basically could not burn such a delicate thing. Moreover, the engraving of the bottom foot 'Great Qing Dao Light Year System' also seems to confirm Liu Dong's judgment.

"Brother Liu, how is this porcelain?" asked Wang Haitao.

"Good things, it seems that they should be the best products of Daoguangnian Guan Kiln!" Liu Dong said with admiration as he looked at the bottle in his hand.

"Hehe, Brother Liu really has a good eye. However, although it is a fine official kiln, it is a pity that it is not very valuable! If only it belonged to the Kangxi or Qianlong dynasties!"

"It seems that Brother Wang also has a deep study of antique appraisal!" After listening to his words, Liu Dong couldn't help but look at the biggest local gang leader in Quancheng with a look of surprise. If ordinary people really don't know about porcelain, especially these Taoists in Qing Dynasty porcelain.

At present, the domestic porcelain collection, especially the porcelain of the official kiln of the Qing Dynasty, the porcelain of the last three dynasties, that is, the porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, is not a grade in price compared with the official kilns of other dynasties of the Qing Dynasty.

For example, this carmine track pastel porcelain, if it was an official kiln in the Qianlong period, even if it was four or five million, some people would rush to ask for it, but if it was to be replaced with a Daoguang official kiln, then it would be a price of more than 100,000 yuan. That's the gap.

Of course, this is also a helpless thing, who called the Qing Dynasty in the later Jiaqing Daoguang period, both the economy and the comprehensive national strength began to go downhill. At this time, the porcelain firing could not be as costless as in the Kangxi and Qianlong periods, which naturally caused the decline in the level of porcelain firing, and the real porcelain products became less and less. Naturally, the price has dropped.

"Hehe, Brother Liu has won the award! This thing of mine is also hearsay, and it is not as good as Brother Liu, a person with a red roots!" Wang Haitao waved his hand and said modestly.

After listening to his words, Liu Dong smiled and didn't say anything more. If there is an argument about this, he might as well look at a few more antiques.

After holding the pastel bottle in his hand and watching it for a while, Liu Dong carefully put the bottle back in its original place with a look of reluctance in his eyes.

"If Brother Liu likes it, I will give this bottle to Brother Liu!"

After listening to Wang Haitao's words, although Liu Dong really liked this carmine pastel bottle in his heart, he still shook his head firmly, "Forget it, no merit is not lost, no matter how you say this thing, it is more than 100,000, the price is not low, I can't ask for it." But thank you Brother Wang for your generosity!"

Looking at Liu Donglian's firm expression, Wang Haitao did not persuade again, this bottle was mortgaged in the casino yesterday, or was it placed here because the value was not too high.

Of course, if he can use this bottle to continue to consolidate his relationship with Liu Dong, then Wang Haitao is still very willing. Especially after this afternoon's contact, he felt more and more that the young man in front of him was not simple, although he was young, he did not have the frizziness of a young man at all, but like an old fritter who had been in the society for many years, steady and witty.

In the gambling game just now, Liu Dong's table made him affirm his judgment. Therefore, while he values Liu Dong more, he is also thinking about how to further make the relationship between the two sides closer.

After putting down the pastel bottle, Liu Dong scanned the many antiques on the iron frame, and then reached out and picked up a copper furnace with an open mouth, a short and thin neck, a flat belly, three blunt conical solid feet, and bridge-shaped ears on the edge of the mouth, which was more than 20 centimeters high and had a brown appearance.

Turning it upside down, as Liu Dong expected, the classic Xuande furnace with one less horizontal in the middle of the 'Ming Xuande Year' appeared in his eyes.

In fact, the Xuande furnace generally refers to the copper incense burner fired during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, referred to as "Xuanlu". It is the first bronze ware made of brass in Chinese history.

Although the history is no longer examinable, and there is no standard for the Xuande furnace in the three years of Xuande, people still believe in the second one among the two legends about the Xuande furnace, that is, when the Xuande Emperor of the Ming Dynasty reigned, in order to satisfy the hobby of playing with the incense burner, he specially ordered to import a batch of red copper from Siam, totaling 39,000 catties, and instructed the imperial craftsman Lu Zhen and the Ministry of Industry to refer to the styles of the firewood kiln, Ru kiln, official kiln, Ge kiln, Jun kiln, and Dingyao famous porcelain hidden in the imperial palace, as well as the "Xuanhe Bogu Catalogue" and "Archaeological Map" and other historical books, designing and supervising the production of incense burners.

Moreover, in order to ensure the quality of the incense burner, the copper used in the Xuande furnace has been repeatedly refined as many as 12 times. You know, in the previous royal casting of the incense burner is only refined six times, in addition, the Xuande Emperor is wealthy, in addition to the original refined copper, but also added gold, silver and other dozens of precious metals, after great efforts, finally in Xuande three years, the best copper furnace finally cast successfully, this batch of imported copper materials cast into a total of 3,000 copper furnaces, there are also said 5,000, but since then there has been no record of casting Xuande furnace.

Emperor Xuande saw this batch of incense burners that he personally asked, each of them was abnormal, full of treasure, and he had a great sense of accomplishment. Most of these incense burners were displayed in various parts of the court, and a small part was also rewarded and distributed to the emperor's relatives, prominent ministers and temples with large scale and flourishing incense. These Xuande furnaces are only known by ordinary people, but not by their shape. After hundreds of years of ups and downs, the copper incense burner cast in three years of real Xuande is extremely rare.

Xuande furnace is a treasure in the handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty, the casting success of Xuande furnace opened a precedent for copper furnace casting in later generations, in a long period of history, Xuande furnace became the general name of copper incense burner.

Moreover, the special status of Xuande furnace, as well as its gorgeous appearance and exquisite craftsmanship, have also made it a top treasure that the royal family and high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the past dynasties have wanted. In order to make huge profits, from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China, the activities of antique dealers imitating Xuande furnace have never stopped.

Even, after the Xuande furnace stopped manufacturing, some officials in charge of the "division of casting" summoned the original casting furnace craftsmen to imitate the drawings and process procedures of the Xuande furnace. These carefully cast imitations are comparable to the real ones, and the authority of experts cannot be distinguished, so far there are many Xuande furnaces in the collections of major museums in China, and none of them can be recognized as the real Xuande furnace by many connoisseurs. Identifying the authenticity of the Xuande furnace has become one of the "unsolved cases" in Chinese archaeology.

It is precisely because of these reasons that the copper incense burner engraved with Xuande's style is extremely cheap in the international art market, far less than the price of other ancient Chinese bronzes.