Chapter 501: Cat Street
One is a white jade seal with a Qianlong imperial theme, and the other is a white jade snuff box engraved with frogs playing in the water.
It's just that as soon as he took a look, Jin Muchen was startled by the yellow light emitted by these two treasures.
At a glance, Jin Muchen knew that these two treasures were real, not fakes, and there was also an introduction in Chinese and English under these two genuine products.
Among them, the jade seal, about fifteen centimeters high, but the length difference is about ten centimeters, below is a square jade brick for the body, above is carved two intertwined dragons.
There is also a row of handwriting carved with a small seal on the side of the jade brick, Jin Muchen probably glanced at it, it should be some handwriting that praises merit.
Looking at the introduction of the calligraphy next to it, it is the origin of this jade seal, which turned out to be a jade seal commonly used by Qianlong in the ten years from 35 to 45 years of Qianlong.
On many of the twists and turns of the Qianlong Dynasty that have been handed down, you can see the inscription of this jade seal.
It's a pity that I couldn't see the inscription under this jade seal, which made Jin Muchen feel a little regretful.
As for the white jade snuff bottle with the frog playing in the water carved out of relief, it is amazing just to look at the material, it should be carved from the top mutton fat white jade.
And there are traces of green on it, and this green jade skin has been carved into a green lotus leaf, and the lovely frog is just under this lotus leaf, naughtily spitting water.
The snuff bottle is small in size, but the carving is extremely exquisite, and the little frog is carved in relief and lifelike.
Jin Muchen himself also collected a set of fine snuff bottles from the Qing Dynasty, and they were all old collections of the Qing Palace. So he judged and identified snuff bottles. It can be said that it is quite experienced.
This snuffbox in front of me. White jade carving, the material belongs to the top jade, even if it is not counted, this is a rare treasure.
Looking at the yellow light that constantly emanates from the body of a white jade snuff bottle, it is even more incredible, with Jin Muchen's experience so far, the treasure that can emit such a yellow light is almost certainly a royal thing.
In consideration of the snuff box this thing is the origin. And flourished in the Qing Dynasty, considering the material of this snuff bottle, Jin Muchen has basically concluded that this snuff bottle should be the real product of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty.
He hesitated for a long time in front of this window, but in the end he did not choose to push the door in.
It's not that he doesn't like these two treasures, but because he knows that even if he likes them, it will be difficult to buy them.
Because they are all genuine, and the owner of this shop was able to put these two treasures here. Looking at this heavy bulletproof glass that can almost resist shells, it already shows that people also know that this thing is genuine.
A merchant in Hong Kong. When he used to work and go to school in the United States, he had dealt with them a lot, and they were a very shrewd group.
If they have good things in their hands and you want to buy them, hehe, then if they don't slaughter you, then they will be sorry for Guan Gong, the God of Wealth, who they often worship.
In addition, he also has a few pieces of Emperor Qianlong's imperial jade seal, and in terms of material, archaeological value, and artistic value, it is no worse than the jade seal in this window, plus he also has a set of top-level genuine snuff bottles.
So although the two things in this window are good enough, they can't get into his eyes now, although he likes it, but he hasn't liked it to the point of scratching his liver.
So these two treasures, Jin Muchen thought about it again and again, but he still forgot it.
He came to Xiangjiang to pick up leaks, not to be the wrongdoer.
Finally retracting his gaze from the window, he soon drew his eyes to the window of another shop.
The window of this shop is simple, there are no eye-catching jewels, and there are no jade products as exquisite as the previous one, only two one-man tall pottery horses.
The shape is unusually exquisite, the pottery horse is very expressive, has been looking up at the sky, and the other one is in the state of galloping hooves, which looks particularly attractive.
With just one glance, Jin Muchen knew that these two pottery horses must also be genuine, but such a thing would not be used by ordinary living people in ancient times, it must be the funeral goods of a prince and dignitary, and even the emperor's funeral goods are possible.
For such burial objects, he has always been insensitive to gratitude.
Along the way, he can be said to have opened his eyes, this Hollywood Road is just more than 100 meters long, but in such a short range, there are about 100 shops gathered on this street.
There are so many good ones, the windows of the shops are very large, and the ones that are almost done are just a façade, but the decoration inside is also very high-end.
Moreover, almost every product operated here has different attributes, which can be said to have their own characteristics.
From jade, porcelain, bronze, silver, and lacquerware to furniture, calligraphy and paintings, and ancient books, there is a wide variety of products.
Rao is a famous connoisseur like Jin Muchen who boasts that he has visited all kinds of large-scale antique markets, and it is dizzying to walk around this street at this time.
It's not because the things here aren't good enough, it's because there's just enough good stuff here.
After walking this Hollywood road, Jin Muchen finally understood why people said that this is another major antique distribution center in Asia.
Not to mention the underground black market here, the things sold by these regular stores here alone are enough to open people's eyes.
It's just that although the things here are good, Jin Muchen has no intention of making a move, because after walking around like this, he can see that the merchants who can run such an antique shop here can almost be said to be masters, and they have all developed a pair of sharp eyes.
The treasures they put in the window are all carefully selected and identified, and although they are also mixed with some fakes, there are more high-quality products, but no matter which one they are, they are expensive.
Jin Muchen has no intention of being wronged here and being slaughtered.
So although he also took a fancy to a few things here, after thinking about it carefully, he finally endured it and didn't start.
He took Belinda and turned away from the famous antique street in Xiangjiang, through a narrow staircase that went downhill, and then came to another well-known antique street on the same name as Hollywood Road, Moro Street.
Like Hollywood Road, this is also a famous antique street in Hong Kong, but it is different from Hollywood Road.
If the antique shops on Hollywood Road sell a lot of fine goods, they are aimed at those high-end elite customers.
Then this Moro on the street is just the opposite, and the customer group he targets is often those who like to collect, but are shy in their pockets.
This is just similar to Jin Muchen's previous visit to the antique market in San Francisco or London, and not far from the high-end market, there will be a corresponding low-end market.
And this Moro is just like this on the street, and as soon as you walk in, you can feel a wave of heat.
Even though it's not a weekend, it's bustling with people.
Unlike the previous Hollywood Road, most of the pedestrians there were in suits and leather shoes, polite, and there was no noise or noise.
However, it seems to be much more life-like, full of pedestrians wearing short-sleeved T-shirts, all of them look casual, talk and laugh naturally, and the atmosphere is much more relaxed than that of Hollywood Road.
Moreover, the shops on both sides of this street are very different from those on Hollywood Road, there are no windows in the shops here, and almost every shop is open in the open air.
The door was open, and several tables were set up in the doorway, which were filled with all kinds of collections, cultural toys, and even small antiques.
As long as you like it, you can bargain with the owner of the shop, this kind of atmosphere makes Jin Muchen feel very liked, and it reminds him of the stalls he saw in the Panjiayuan antique market before.
Speaking of this Moro Street, it is also more interesting, its construction history, slightly later than Hollywood Road, but the shops on this street to sell antiques career, can be much earlier than Hollywood Road, they sell antiques, even as early as the beginning of the last century.
At that time, Hollywood Road was still a high-rise area in the Xiangjiang River, and the people who lived in it were all rich people among the Chinese, and the people who lived on this side of the street were all poor people who came from the mainland later, or who took refuge in the broken households.
These people brought a lot of things from the mainland to a greater or lesser extent, and at that time, in order to make a living, some people began to sell antiques here.
So much so that later, it even developed to the point that some of the underground gangs in Xiangjiang relied on the illegal means of abduction, deception and robbery, and got antiques from many new immigrants, and they would take them to this street to sell.
So at that time, this street became a famous black market in Xiangjiang and a place to sell stolen goods, so at that time, people gave this street a nickname, called 'Cat Street'!
This situation lasted until the beginning of this century, when the merchants here gradually obtained legal antique business licenses from the government and became 'legal' antique dealers.
Of course, they became legal traders just to compromise with the government agencies, and everyone got along with each other on face, in fact, even now, it is still a famous holy place for the Xiangjiang gang to sell stolen goods.
Many of the shady transactions were done almost at night in a small shop on this street.
Before coming, Jin Muchen had collected detailed information about this antique market on the Internet early on, and after he learned about it, he knew that this was the kind of place he wanted to go to the most. (To be continued......)