Shinkawa Minami Antique City.

The two antique cities in the north and south of the whole city of Shinchuan are opposite each other, and although the things circulating in them are roughly the same, the two antique cities also have certain differences.

The difference is that the North Antique City focuses on porcelain, calligraphy and painting, and even a tea city, while the South Antique City focuses more on furniture and a book city.

Of course, this is not to say that there is absolutely no furniture and other things in the north city, and there is absolutely no porcelain, calligraphy and painting in the south city, in fact, whether it is south or north, almost all the types of antiques circulating in the market are complete, but the proportion is different.

Although there are also furniture sellers in the North Antique City, there may only be one in the dozens, and they are often small pieces, while the South Antique City is not, there may be three or four out of ten, and they are full of many large items.

However, in the field of collecting in China in the past, furniture is not a category, throughout the 5,000-year history of China, there have been five private collection fever.

The earliest collecting fever originated in the Northern Song Dynasty, the second collecting fever was in the late Ming Dynasty, the third was the prosperous Kangqian period, and the fourth was from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, and the fifth was now.

In these five national collection fevers, even in the antique shops of the late Qing Dynasty, other antiques are classified, but no one is the only one who sells ancient furniture for a living, but sells it slightly, which is mainly due to the low level of understanding of furniture among Chinese people.

Or because the Chinese's understanding of architecture is also low, we are not very willing to protect ancient buildings, until now can have been handed down from ancient buildings, and there are only a handful of preserved, such as the Tang Dynasty left over buildings in the country there are only four, the Song Dynasty ancient buildings are not many, the Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings are still partial, but mainly Yanjing Palace and other huge projects.

The most happy thing for Chinese to do is often to tear down old buildings and build new ones.

However, the Western concept of architecture is different, and most of the buildings in all European countries with historical traditions have been preserved, which is the gap between Chinese and Western concepts.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this that because furniture and architecture are most closely related, we did not pay attention to the preservation and collection of ancient furniture in the past.

In 1944, he published the "Illustrated Examination of Chinese Huali Furniture", which is the first monograph on the study of Chinese furniture, because of this book, the world's major museums began to pay attention to the collection of Chinese furniture.

In addition, in 1971, the American An Siyuan wrote the book "Chinese Furniture", and in 1985, Wang Shixiang published "Ming Style Furniture Treasures".

It is these three people, two foreign and one middle school and three books, who have connected together to promote the collection of Chinese furniture and raised Chinese furniture to an unprecedented height, so that the furniture in today's private collection fever has finally changed and become a major category in the antique industry.

In 1996, Christie's auctioned a Chinese furniture in New York, 107 pieces of furniture, including 37 small pieces, auctioned more than 100 million yuan, an average of about one million per piece, one of which was sold at 1.1 million US dollars, equivalent to 10 million yuan at that time, creating a world record for the transaction price of Chinese furniture that year.

At that time, countless Chinese were shocked, and many Chinese people could not understand that old things that we did not care about or even threw away had such amazing value.

A screen is only tens of thousands of dollars in China, how can it be sold for 10 million in foreign countries?

You must know that it was 10 million in 1996, and now I am afraid it will increase by more than three or four times, and it is enough to buy a building!

As Bi Lao's guide to the South Antique City, Zhou Mingluo entered the antique city for the first time, and what he saw was a long street, the street style was roughly the same as the North Antique City, and there were low buildings on the side of the street.

However, the biggest difference with the North Antique City is that the shops on both sides of the street here are often very large and very large.

It also looks majestic against the backdrop of the entire antique city.

This is inevitable, most of the North Antique City are porcelain, calligraphy and painting and other antiques, although those things are also big and small, but even if they are large, they will not be too exaggerated, but the furniture is not, whether it is a bed, a couch, a table, a case, etc., or a screen, it often occupies a very broad space.

If the store is small, I guess there will be no room for two or three beds......

"Bi Lao, I don't know much about furniture, when you get here, you should mention more juniors." Walking calmly, Zhou Mingluo looked at Bi Lao with a smile.

This is true, he is most proficient in porcelain, and for furniture is actually only half-baked.

It's not that he's not interested in furniture, to be honest, the cultural inheritance of the Chinese people attached to the furniture is not weaker than other antiques such as porcelain, or even stronger, more common surname, because this is closely related to everyone's life, the past Chinese people did not pay attention to the collection of ancient furniture when collecting, but that only refers to the antique market furniture has not risen.

In fact, in ancient times, furniture was synonymous with a type of property in many periods.

The funniest example is Yan Song, a powerful minister in the Ming Dynasty, who later copied 640 beds from his home when his house was raided...... If this is put in the eyes of modern people, I am afraid it will be a difficult thing to understand, one of the top ten ministers in history, there are more than 600 beds hidden in the house, isn't it funny?

But in fact, Yan Song hid so many beds not for opening a hotel, but because the bed itself was a symbol of wealth during that period.

This point is also recorded in the Golden Vase Plum, and it is very interesting, when Ximen Qing married a third party Meng Yulou, the matchmaker said, "This Meng Yulou is a widow, she has a little money in hand, and she has two Nanjing Babu beds." ”

What does that mean? It's like today's matchmaker will say that she has some money in hand and two German-made "Mercedes-Benz", which is a huge property.

At that time, Nanjing was a very important city in Jiangsu, and the stepping bed made in Nanjing was the same brand as Mercedes-Benz in Germany today.

This is the status of ancient furniture, the ancients in the collection of the rise of the ancient furniture often disdained, holding old things are better than chopping as firewood, but it does not mean that they do not value their own use of furniture.

On the contrary, the status of "new" furniture corresponding to various periods is still very high, and it is precisely because of this that Chinese furniture has inherited the essence of humanities and art from generation to generation, making Chinese ancient furniture quite famous all over the world.

But there is a specialization in the art industry, and Zhou Mingluo has not even eaten porcelain in the past, but he has just had a little transparency, where will there be too much time to study others.

However, on the way here, he knew that Bi Lao had studied it a lot, so he naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity at this time.

"Little brother Mingluo, you are too polite." In the face of Zhou Mingluo's jokes, Bi Lao also smiled and spoke, although he didn't have much contact with Zhou Mingluo, but Bi Lao had a good impression of him.

As he spoke, a group of four or five people suddenly came from the depths of the street, led by a man in a suit and leather shoes, with a big belly.

Behind him were four young men carrying a small and small Arhat bed.

"Let's let go, everyone, it's convenient, I just got the first bed in the world, the antiques that Shixian Li Bai has laid, don't make any mistakes, no one will be happy when the time comes."

The atmospheric middle-aged man led by him drank while walking, his voice was loud, and the smile on the corner of his mouth also carried a little arrogance and self-satisfaction, as if he was extremely satisfied that he could dig out a bed where Li Bai had been lying, and he was almost so satisfied that he was proud.

But this shout made many people around stunned.

The bed that Li Bai slept in? That's an antique, but ...... But can this also be identified? Celebrity calligraphy and painting still have handwriting to follow, but the bed that celebrities have slept in is a little illusory, right?

Someone in the crowd who avoided it couldn't bear it anymore, and directly said in surprise, "Big brother, why are you so sure that this bed is what Li Bai slept in?" ”

"Of course it's confirmed, there is also Li Bai's poem on it, the bright moonlight in front of the bed, suspected to be frost on the ground, this is the bed in Li Bai's poem."

Seeing someone asking, the middle-aged man was in high spirits and said triumphantly.