Recently, in the domestic auction industry, the auction of Xin, Xinjiang and Tianyu is no less than the calligraphy and painting of ancient masters.

With the intervention of more and more auction houses, Hetian jade has ushered in a new round of price increases, and the price of different grades of Hetian jade has increased by 1 to 3 times compared with before.

At present, the best Hetian sheep fat jade seed material on the market can be called thousands of yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan per gram, which is much more expensive than gold.

Hotan City is very familiar to Wei Changqing, this young man from a jade carving family, in the past few years, has been to Hotan City 6 or 7 times a year.

Because there is a river flowing with wealth, the Yulong Kashgar River developed on the northern slope of Kunlun Mountain is the source of Hetian jade seeds, and because Hetian jade seeds have risen 1,000 times in 20 years

Wei Changqing knows how to do it, Qian Mingyuan is even more knowledgeable, Qian Mingyuan, who was born in a family of Hetian, was a buyer in a government-run factory when he was young, and he handled tens of millions of funds every year, and the jade material he handled weighed several tons.

More than ten years ago, he once saw a 3-ton piece of mountain material in Hotan (the jade material mined in the rock formation is called mountain material, and the jade block collected in the riverbed is called Ziyu), and the seller offered 15 million yuan at that time, but now, 15 million can only buy a fraction.

At that time, the material was very cheap, and it was all in piles, but after that, every time he went to Hetian, the jade material he saw became smaller and smaller.

In Qian Mingyuan's view, the Hetian jade market has changed the most this year, which can be said to be a look every month and a price every month.

Qian Mingyuan said: "When I went to Hotan in March, dozens of high-end materials (more than 100 yuan per gram) of 10,000 yuan in the market could be seen every day, and there was room for selection.

This time I went to Hotan for a month and drove a few bazaars. During this period, I also went to the markets of Zong, Gate, Qu/Shou, Char/Bake, Bu/Ya, Ji/Ya, these places where the material is produced, so to speak: I was so disappointed! If it weren't for the relationship of old friends, he would almost return empty-handed. ”

Wei Changqing also sighed: "Now the closer to the jade production area, the higher the price of jade, the price of jade in Hotan is higher than that of Kashgar, and the price of Kashgar is higher than that of Ulu and Muqi." And this year, mountain material, seed material rose together, a recent auction, a 12 kilogram of white jade mountain material was sold for more than 6 million yuan, an average of 50,000 yuan/kg.

In 2004, the price of white jade mountain material was only 8,000 yuan/kg, in 1997 and 1998 it was only 1,500 yuan/kg, and 10 years ago, in the 80s, the price of mountain material was 80 yuan/kg. ”

Gu Tong also said: "Yes! The soaring price of sub-material is even more alarming in the 80s of the 20th century. 1 kilogram of good seed material can be sold for more than 200 yuan, and in the 90s of the 20th century, 1 kilogram of similar seed material has risen to 2,000 yuan.

After SARS in 2003, the price of Hetian jade has increased suddenly, and now 1 kilogram of baby material has been sold for 200,000 yuan, and the price has increased by 1,000 times in the 20 years from 1980 to 2000. ”

This point Gu Tong and Qian Mingyuan felt the most, especially Qian Mingyuan. What impressed him the most was that when he first entered the factory at the age of 20, the jade factory waste pile was full of jade. At that time, every day after work, he had to pick up a dustpan and throw out the waste jade materials left over from processing, if it were today, that dustpan of jade would be worth tens of thousands.

A few people were talking, and they hadn't forgotten to work on the place they had discovered. According to Han Peacock, it is a jade nest.

It turned out that this was the turning point of a river, but then I don't know what happened, a huge rock slipped down and blocked the river. Redirect the river upstream.

And although this side is blocked, the jade on it is still washed down, so a jade nest is formed here.

The seven of them searched for the rough stones they could see in the exposed riverbed, and as long as anyone had doubts or was full of confidence, they would return to the outside and use the cutting machine to separate the openings to see the situation inside.

Although cutting more than a dozen pieces may not produce a piece of jade, there are many rough stones in this jade nest.

According to Huangshan's words, that is, he looks at every pebble like a sub-material, and in his meaning, it is best to give every stone here a knife.

Of course, others will not be as crazy as him, but Huangshan does this, and when others are not using a cutting machine, he goes to the river to bring a lot of round stones the size of a human head, and cut them piece by piece.

Looking at his appearance, Qian Mingyuan and Gu Tong laughed, and Qian Mingyuan said with a smile: "Xiao Huang is a mistake and will not let go, if this is really the case, I believe that none of us will gain as much as you." ”

Gu Tong also smiled and said: "Diligence can make up for clumsiness, using this method is the easiest and most effective, no matter how powerful you are, there are times when you lose your eyes, and in doing so, it is impossible to miss." ”

Han Peacock glanced at Huangshan, this guy is a waste of electricity like this, the battery he took out just now should not have much power left at this time.

Huang Shan was very proud at this time, he didn't have to go down to pick and choose, and he didn't need experience, he just chose a big pick, and it was a knife to pick up, and if there was no jade, it wouldn't take much effort anyway.

If there is jade, then he will make a lot of money, and the material the size of a human head, as long as the jade is produced, the value will not be low.

"This guy, if they are all like him, there is no need to learn Xiangyu." Han Peacock said in a low voice.

Qian Mingyuan said with a smile: "That is, here, there are not so many rough stones for him to cut in other places, if it is outside, the rough stones he cuts can be clearly marked." ”

Gu Tong agreed: "Not to mention anything else, compared to those fake rough stones, at least all the stones here are natural, no matter what the appearance is, but all of them have the possibility of producing the best jade." ”

"Yes! Now the Hetian jade market is mixed, and there are not a few gambling masters who are fooled. Qian Mingyuan sighed.

"It's just that the counterfeit is easy to identify, and now the market is full of cheap jade, and old guys like us, if they can't keep up with the times, then they will definitely be deceived." Gu Tongdao.

Now in the market, in addition to Xin/Xinjiang Hotan, Qing, Hai, and Russia also produce jade, which is collectively referred to as Hetian jade in the market, so if you don't really know how to do it, don't buy high-priced jade, so as not to be deceived.

Since the rough stone table here is really good, it only took a short time for everyone to have a harvest.

The rough stones that were picked up were all placed next to the cutter, waiting to be unraveled.

Everyone was talking and resting, while Huangshan was still humming and cutting stones.

Han Peacock really couldn't see it, so he could only snatch the cutting machine in his hand and let it be used by Qian Mingyuan and Gu Tong.

The cutting machine that Han Peacock got belonged to a small cutting machine, and the cutting blade was four hundred, so it could only cut small rough stones, and the most they picked up were small pebbles.

Looking at Qianming Yuan's calcite, Han Peacock whispered to Huangshan to popularize some jade knowledge, and he continued to be embarrassed for a while.

Listening to Han Peacock and Huang Shan whispering, Qian Mingyuan also joined in the fun, among them, except for Wei Changqing, he knew nephrite jade the best, especially Hetian jade.

The quality of jade, he knew at a glance, especially in the delicate and moisturizing texture of jade, there are many terms in the craft world to express defects, reflecting the quality of jade.

Such as "yin", that is, jade has a dark feeling; "oil", i.e., a non-creamy oily sensation; "Tender", that is, the transparency is large but not effective, and there is a feeling of demon tenderness; "Dry", that is, not moist; "Porcelain", that is, like porcelain. With these tables, the quality is not good.

In the jade industry, gambling materials have a certain skill, not an experienced master, and ordinary people can't see anything.

Because when Hetian jade is mined, most of it is wrapped in a layer of weathered skin, and it is not clear whether the fabric is good or bad.

When he was young, Qian Mingyuan was a daring person, and when he first arrived in the factory, he became famous because of a gamble.

At that time, an agate was being processed in the workshop, but the thick skin made it impossible to tell where to start cutting.

If you cut it rashly, the whole agate will be wasted, in the face of this piece of material, the workshop director and the master said that the position pointed out by Qian Mingyuan could not be cut, but at his insistence, it was really fine.

After that, others lost nine out of ten, but he won nine out of ten.

However, with the rise in the price of Hetian jade, there are fewer and fewer real Hetian materials, and a large number of green, sea, and Russian materials are flooded with them, which makes Qian Mingyuan, who has more than 40 years of experience in distinguishing jade, also have a time to look away.

In May this year, Qian Mingyuan fell in love with a piece of Russian material half a meter square in Hetian, and from the color of the skin, he judged that it was jasper.

Such a large jasper is relatively rare, and Qian Mingyuan had already conceived in his mind that he could use it as a screen, so he did not hesitate to buy it for 60,000 yuan.

But when I got home, after cutting it with a thallium, there was a stone inside, and the thallium was equivalent to a circular saw, which was installed on the jade grinding machine, and turned to drive the emery for useless parts other than the guillotine deinking line.

The process is divided into pinching, picking, and scratching, and the folding is to cut the edges and hang the corners; Cutting refers to two angles of crooked line cutting, stripping the middle part; Scratching is the repeated use of cutting and picking. These are used in the moulding process.

Even veterans like Qian Mingyuan often walk away, not to mention some rookies, the high turnover rate and the emergence of a large number of "rookies" make wall bricks become strange treasures, so don't look at it here is an ordinary stone, as long as it is shipped out, it can be sold for money.

"We can't be here for too long." Seeing Wei Changqing, who had finished cutting the stone and entered the river again, Qian Mingyuan spoke.

Wei Changqing's footsteps paused, and said, "We can go back a few times in the middle." ”

Han Peacock said: "Maybe other people also have gains, so they won't be able to take care of us." (To be continued......)