"What about our Kyosaku? It's the most down-to-earth, right? ”

Finally to the end of the Jingzuo furniture, as one of the three major schools, but also the only representative of the northern workers, Wu Shixiang is curious about what is outstanding.

"Beijing furniture is generally based on the furniture made by the Qing Palace, and there is a separate Guangmu in the office, which is filled by outstanding craftsmen selected by Guangdong, and the utensils made are more reflected in the Cantonese style. However, due to the fact that most of the timber is transported from Guangzhou, a truckload of timber can only be transported to Beijing for several months. Needless to say, manpower, material resources, and expenses along the way. Emperor Lao Tzu himself was well aware of this, so the manufacturing office must first draw a certain piece of artifact and present it with the approval of the emperor before it can be made. ”

Such things are often recorded in these imperial approvals, and the emperor felt that a certain part of the material was too large after reading it, and promptly instructed a certain part to be smaller. Especially Emperor Yongzheng, he himself was very cautious and economical, and had high requirements for art, so basically everything had to be seen by him before it could be customized. ”

"Over time, the formation of the Beijing furniture is more widely made of materials small characteristics. In the ordinary woodwork of the manufacturing office, craftsmen are mostly selected from the vast areas of the south of the Yangtze River, and the work tends to be Soviet-style. The difference is that the furniture they made in the Qing palace office is slightly larger than that used in the Jiangnan area, and there are not many cases of adulteration. ”

"In terms of ornamentation, it has a unique style compared to other regions. It draws on ancient bronze and stone carvings from the palace's collection and subtly decorates the furniture. In the Ming Dynasty, it was mostly limited to the tooth plate and the paneling between the feet of the case, while in the Qing Dynasty, it was widely used on tables, chairs, stools, and cabinets. ”

"The Ming Dynasty carved many dragons and tiger dragons. That is, the crutch or grass dragon in the mouth of Beijing craftsmen. In the Qing Dynasty, there were dragons, phoenixes, abduction patterns, claw patterns, claw patterns, claw patterns, pan patterns, gluttonous patterns, animal face patterns, thunder patterns, cicada patterns, hook scroll patterns, etc. According to the different modeling characteristics of the furniture, a variety of different forms of ornamentation are applied, showing all kinds of antique, quiet and elegant artistic images. ”

"Generally speaking, the craftsmen of the Qing Dynasty used all kinds of means, all kinds of materials, and tried all kinds of methods, all in order to achieve the gorgeous and stable purpose they expected. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, due to the imperialist aggression and the ruling class, various traditional literature and art such as national handicrafts also declined. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial palace also made a batch of furniture, but unfortunately it was a pity that there were no more skilled craftsmen. ”

After turning around, Gu was also tired, and the two of them returned to the office, just as Lao Li came back from his errands. The three of them chatted while drinking tea, and Wu Shixiang couldn't help but ask curiously: "Uncle Li, after turning around, I also have a rough idea in my heart, you have been playing with wood for decades, and now the market is so chaotic, do you have any experience?" ”

Lao Li glanced at Wu Shixiang and said with a smile: "You kid, don't you just want to ask about fake and old things?" Do? Afraid that your Uncle Li will pit you? ”

"Look at what you say!" Wu Shixiang explained: "I am just getting started with furniture, in case someone asks me, I say I don't know how embarrassing it is!" I'm also the boss of Muyuanju, aren't I? ”

"Haha, you kid!" After all, Lao Li is an old friend, and he will definitely cooperate with Wu Shixiang for a long time in the future, his quality is guaranteed, the goods are genuine, and he is not afraid of revealing any inside story. Even if he doesn't say it, Gu Gu will say the same, it's better to simply sell personal favors.

"In fact, there are several main types of furniture fraud, the first is to use the characteristics of hardwood furniture that are not easy to distinguish, and mix the furniture made of poor wood with better wood. Rosewood, Huanghuali, Tieli, Ebony, Wenge, Mahogany, etc., although they have their unique physical properties in terms of specific gravity, color, texture, etc. ”

"However, due to the difference in the place of growth, the difference in the age of growth, the transfer of the position of the wood, such as sapwood, heartwood, etc., and the change of the angle of the sawing when cutting the material, there will be a phenomenon that is contrary to the standard wood sample diagram in the book. It is easy to confuse the natural texture and texture, so that the drill camper has an opportunity to take advantage of it. ”

Wu Shixiang pricked up his ears and listened carefully, this is a meat show. Nowadays, furniture is very expensive, and there are too many dummies, and if you are not careful, you will have to be eye-catching.

"For example, the original natural color and texture of iron wood is slightly similar to wenge, and it is easier to pass it off if it encounters the above special conditions. Even if the natural color is inconsistent with the high-end materials, speculators will change their true colors and pass off as high-end furniture. Due to the difference in fashion, about the middle of the Qing Dynasty to the 30s of the 20th century, because of the favor of the court magnates and feudal literati, the hardwood furniture is expensive black and not expensive yellow, so most of the fake wood is painted black to pass off as red sandalwood. Of course, the furniture dealer is also very flexible in changing the color of furniture, and there is more than one kind of fake wood color. ”

"The second is patchwork reform, many ancient furniture is often poorly preserved, the components are incomplete, and it is extremely difficult to repair as it is, so some people are engaged in transplanting flowers and grafts, transplanting the residual structure of non-similar varieties, and making up a piece of ancient furniture that is difficult to belong to and is nondescript.

"The third is to change the common to rare products, why the use of common ancient furniture varieties to change into rare varieties, because "rare" is an important embodiment of the value of ancient furniture. Many furniture manufacturers have transformed the half-tables, large square tables, and small square tables, which have been handed down more and are not very valuable, into relatively rare drawer tables, strip tables, and Go tables. It varies from instrument to instrument and is used in a variety of ways, and it is generally difficult to find out without careful research.

"The most deceptive thing is to break it into parts, use complete ancient furniture, and dismantle and transform it into multiple pieces in order to make high profits. An ancient piece of furniture is dismantled, and one or more pieces are imitated according to the original components, and then the old and new parts are mixed to assemble two or more pieces of original furniture with some old components. ”

Lao Li focused on this point, which was the most confusing. "The most common example is to change a chair into a pair of chairs, or even to piece together 4 pieces, all of which are old restorations. This method of forgery is the worst, not only extremely deceptive, but also severely destroying precious ancient cultural relics. If more than half of the components are found to be post-matched during the purchase, you should consider whether this is the case.

"In the same way, in order to increase the value of the furniture, speculators sometimes arbitrarily change the original structure and decoration, and deliberately remove the decoration from some precious heirloom furniture to pass off the furniture of an earlier age."

"The lowest-level method of counterfeiting is called "sticking skin", which is "sticking skin" on the surface of furniture made of ordinary wood, disguised as hardwood furniture, and sold at a high price. The joints of bezel-mosaic furniture are often decorated with color and inlay, and those with fine workmanship can have a chaotic appearance. Of course, some furniture needs to be functional, such as the piano table, in order to obtain a good resonance effect, it is necessary to use non-hardwood as a frame, or for other reasons, it has to be used to use the bezel inlay method for unity, which is not a fake. ”

Gu took a sip of tea, took a break, and said: "I saw several tricks when I was young, and I paid a lot of tuition, so you can listen to it." One is called the package adjustment meter, which changes the soft drawer to a hard drawer. Soft drawer is a kind of elastic structure composed of wood, rattan, brown, silk thread, etc., which is used on the chair surface, bed collapse surface and side, and Ming-style furniture is more common. ”

"Soft drawers have the advantage of being comfortable and soft compared to hard drawers, but they are more prone to damage. The precious furniture that has been handed down for a long time, and the ** of the soft drawers has been damaged. Due to the craftsmen who make the soft drawers, the fine rattan workers, it has been decreasing in recent decades. Therefore, many of the soft drawers on the precious furniture in ancient times were replaced with hard drawers. If you use the soft drawer frame of Ming-style furniture, choose the same wood as the original equipment, and transform it into a hard drawer with Seiko, it is easy for people to be deceived, and the price difference is much higher. ”

"There is also a way to change high to low, in order to adapt to the way of living of modern life, the high furniture is changed to low furniture, furniture is a practical utensil, and its shape is closely related to people's way of living. After entering the modern society, sofa-shaped chairs and stools and bed collapses have entered the homes of ordinary people in large numbers. ”

"In order to meet the needs of the lower height of the seats and bedding, many chairs and tables have been shortened so that they can be upholstered on the chairs, and the sofas are used as sofa tables in front of them. Many people often buy low-grade ancient furniture that has been restructured, and mistakenly think that it is a "natural vessel" handed down by the ancients to today!

Wu Shixiang is really eye-opening today, he knows a lot of insiders, he has big players to identify, and the truth is clear at a glance. However, the furniture is divided into many parts, it is impossible to read them all, once the price of Huahuali buys a furniture doped with mixed wood, how embarrassing!

"The age of ancient furniture is an important basis for determining the value, and the earlier the furniture, the higher the value. But this is not absolute, only based on the early and late age, can not comprehensively and accurately judge the value of ancient furniture. There is a one-sided view in the market that the earlier the age of the furniture, the higher the value, but this is not the case. ”

Gu concluded: "Take the furniture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the furniture made in the early Qing Dynasty is quite consistent with the furniture of the Ming Dynasty in terms of style, structure, workmanship and materials, and has high artistic value. As far as the current level of appraisal is concerned, it is still difficult to distinguish which ones are from the Ming Dynasty and which ones are from the early Qing Dynasty without an exact year, so some domestic furniture research authorities refer to the furniture of the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty as "Ming-style furniture".

"In terms of determining value, the two are basically the same. The reason why the furniture in the early Qing Dynasty can be comparable to the furniture of the Ming Dynasty and enjoy the same value is that it has a high artistic value, which also shows that the history of ancient furniture is not the only criterion for identifying its value. ”

Wu Shixiang has seen a lot of information, because the ancient furniture is a kind of historical artwork with a large body shape and a strong sense of three-dimensionality, it is difficult to leave the real object for evaluation. Therefore, under the condition of the lack of real furniture before the Ming Dynasty, the evaluation of ancient furniture plastic art is mainly based on a small number of Ming and Qing dynasty furniture.

Among connoisseurs, collectors and academics, there are not only more consistent scientific standards, but they are also accepted by the world. Mr. Wang Shixiang can be said to be the culmination of scientific appraisal of furniture plastic arts, in his article "Ming style furniture "product" and "disease", cleverly borrowed the ancients to evaluate the ruler of Chinese painting "product" and "disease", to evaluate the Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture, the furniture plastic art standards, made a high summary.

The sixteen furniture products proposed by Mr. Wang Shixiang are concise, simple, clumsy, dignified, majestic, mellow, heavy, rich, Wenqi, Yanxiu, vigorous, soft, ethereal, exquisite, elegant, and fresh: the eight diseases are cumbersome, redundant, bloated, sluggish, delicate, paradoxical, out of place, and slang.

Each "product" and "disease", Ming-style furniture appreciation have auspicious explanations, and with examples to illustrate, collectors have mastered the "product" and "disease" of furniture, the advantages and disadvantages of its shape and the high and low artistic value, naturally it is very clear.

"In fact, as a decades-old craftsman, there are many problems in practice." Lao Li Yan said: "Traditional Chinese furniture has always been known for its reasonable structure, but in many cases, there are still irrational phenomena, even the Ming-style furniture made in the peak of furniture making skills, 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 seen from the firm and dense dù of the mortise and tenon joint, but generally speaking, the workmanship of the tenon and tenon joint is tightened 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 drying treatment of wood before making is sloppy. Because the wood is used to make zuò after strict drying treatment, it is easy to shrink, deform and crack, so that furniture with excellent mortise and tenon joints and other aspects is greatly inferior. ”

Wu Shixiang has a deep understanding of this, that is, as the saying goes, the problem of wood release, new wood moisture, wood instability, 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 Shixiang couldn't help but sigh, or the furniture water is deeper! 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. The road is one foot high, and the magic is one foot high, which really makes sense in the antique and cultural entertainment circle.

Driven by huge profits, who can guarantee their own heart and do a life of conscience? Gu also told Wu Shixiang in private, and when he was young, he also did a few bad things and suffered a lot of losses, so he knew the benefits of being honest.