"In fact, as a decades-old craftsman, there are many problems in practice. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 "Chinese traditional furniture has always been known for its reasonable structure, but in many cases, there are still irrational phenomena, even if the furniture making skills reached the peak of the Ming style furniture, is no exception. ”

"For example, the shape of some furniture legs, feet, pots and other parts does not conform to the wood, and it is easy to break at the turn, and this kind of furniture will inevitably be discounted when determining its value. Most of the ancient furniture handed down from generation to generation is made of high-quality wood, and the joints of the mortise and tenon joints are generally of high quality, but there are also examples of shoddy work. ”

"The method of identification can be mainly judged from the firmness and tightness of the mortise and tenon joint, but generally speaking, the tenon and tenon joint is tightened, and its workmanship must be more exquisite than that of the loose one. In addition, whether the gap at the intersection of mortise and tenon joints is closed or not can not only reflect the level of operation during production, but also sometimes reflect whether the wood is sloppy before production. Because the wood is used for production after a strict drying process, it is easy to shrink, deform and crack, so that furniture with excellent mortise and tenon joints and other aspects is greatly inferior. ”

Wu Tianyuan has a deep understanding of this, that is, as the saying goes, the problem of the release of wood, the new wood has a large moisture, the wood is unstable, and the environment is easy to break. Therefore, the materials that can really be used for furniture should be stored for at least a few years, or even more than ten years. This is also why the real big and good materials are generally in the hands of big players.

"Ancient furniture is often the eye-catching carving. The quality of the carver directly affects the value of the furniture. The carvings on ancient furniture are generally divided into three types: openwork carving, flat real carving and three-dimensional carving. The advantages and disadvantages of the carving work, first of all, look at whether the form is realistic, whether the three-dimensional sense is strong, and whether the level is clear. ”

"Then look at whether the carved holes are smooth, whether there are file marks, whether the roots and feet are clean, and whether the bottom is smooth. In general, in addition to considering the difficulty of the process and the accuracy of the operation, the key is whether the whole has a moving texture and expressive charm when evaluating the carving of furniture. ”

Wu Tianyuan couldn't help but sigh, it's still the depth of the furniture! Handed down for thousands of years, how many masters continue to research and develop, the higher the technology, the higher the level of counterfeiting, especially the old one, the road is one foot high.

Driven by huge profits, who can guarantee their own heart and do a life of conscience? Old man Ouyang also told Wu Tianyuan privately that he had done a few bad things in his early years and suffered a lot of losses, so he knew the benefits of being honest.

"The preciousness of the materials used in ancient furniture is generally arranged as: yellow pear, red sandalwood, wenge wood, nanmu, mahogany, iron wood, rosewood, sorrel wood, etc. In the case of ancient furniture made of the same type of wood by all the components, it is relatively easy to determine its value in terms of timber according to the arrangement of the preciousness of the wood mentioned above. ”

"However, in a large number of heirlooms, some are often only applied to the surface, and some inferior materials are used in non-surface areas such as drawer boards, back panels, straps, etc.; There are also high-quality wood attached to the surface of the fetal bone made of ordinary wood, that is, "skin".

"Others are simply patchwork of different woods. To determine the value of these furniture materials, we must first look at the proportion of good materials and secondary materials in the volume used; The second is to look at the use of good materials in the main parts of the furniture. ”

"If the volume of a piece of furniture is more than 50%, it can generally be named after the name of such good wood, such as mahogany table, cabinet chair, etc. However, sometimes in order to make use of the short, small, offcuts or odd materials of good materials, although the good materials are greater than the secondary materials in the volume of the whole piece of furniture, they apply secondary materials in the main parts, such as the legs and feet, face, and edge of the furniture. In this way, the value of the materials used in the furniture will be greatly reduced. ”

Lao Li warned: "This point must not be ignored. The so-called material mainly refers to the wood of the same tree, because of the different parts, or because of the change of the angle of the sawing when cutting, there are certain advantages and disadvantages in color and texture, such as sapwood is usually inferior to heartwood; The wood grain at the scars and branches is not as beautiful as the flawless wood grain.

"In fact, among the ancient furniture that has been handed down, there are not many that are intact, and a large number of them are restored objects. The standard for the restoration of ancient furniture should be "as is" and "repair the old as before". In order to achieve the above restoration standards, it is necessary to use traditional technology, original materials and traditional auxiliary materials, coupled with excellent operation technology. ”

"To identify the quality of restoration of ancient furniture, we can first look at the restoration of the original structure and original components. Any restoration, which is consistent with the original, in terms of structure, style, material and workmanship, can be regarded as high-quality restoration. However, those who are "reborn", "refreshed" and rough in workmanship, relying on coloring and caulking, in the restoration are examples of failure, and the value of the original is damaged. ”

"Secondly, it is necessary to check whether traditional auxiliary materials are used in the restoration, such as bamboo nails, bamboo pins, hardwood pins, animal glue, etc., and whether they are replaced by existing materials such as iron nails and chemical adhesives? are all reference factors in determining the final value. ”

Wu Tianyuan has read the book, the general hand-me-down ancient furniture, in addition to a large number of repairs, there is also a part of it has never been repaired, a small number of this part of the ancient furniture is intact, but most of them have this or that defects, such as loose, scattered, missing parts, broken, cracked, deformed, decayed, etc.

Mr. Wang Shixiang said that the principle of judging whether the ancient furniture is well preserved is mainly to see whether its structure has been damaged, what is the degree of damage, whether the parts are lost, and how much is lost. Those original structures that have not been damaged, the components are basically intact, and are only loose or falling apart, can still be regarded as well preserved and hold the value of the original.

However, due to missing parts, breaks, cracks, deformation and decay, ancient furniture that must replace its components cannot maintain the intact value of the original. Its value depends on the preservation of the main structure after restoration.

"You see some of the furniture in Rong Bao Zhai, they are all carefully cared for. Wet cloth is the natural enemy of ancient furniture, because the moisture in the wet cloth and lime sand are mixed, it will form granular, once the surface of the furniture is rubbed, it is easy to cause certain damage, and people are usually not aware of its harmfulness, and are accustomed to wiping furniture with a wet cloth. ”

Therefore, this point is especially noteworthy, because the dust accumulated on the old furniture at home is best brushed off gently with a fine, soft brush, and then slowly wiped with a dry cloth of cotton and linen cloth. If the furniture is stained, you can wipe it with a small amount of water-soluble or oil-based detergent. ”

This time it was not worth the trip, through the old man Ouyang to catch Lao Li's line, he had hundreds of tons of Indian red sandalwood import quota in his hands, which was processed into furniture by ancestral craftsmen, and his value doubled, which is another flagship product of Tianyuantang. (To be continued.) )