Meng Yi put the two boxes on the table first, and Zhu Dafu asked, "Xiao Meng, what kind of good things are these?" ”

Meng Yixian replied with a smile: "Xu Beihong's pine crane longevity map, and there is also a copper cloisonné enamel pine crane longevity three-legged disc from the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"What?! Xu Beihong's work? ”

Xu Beihong, who is known as the "Jinling Three Masters" in the painting world with Zhang Shuqi and Liu Zigu, is well-known in my country.

There are only about 3,000 pieces of Xu Beihong's works that have survived, and the reason why there is not much in the world is that he has a short lifespan, and secondly, he has experienced most of the war periods, and he does not have much time to paint with peace of mind.

There are heirlooms, Xu Beihong's works in the Xu Beihong Memorial Hall have more than 1,200 pieces, except for some treasures, may be circulated in the folk authentic works are hundreds.

Therefore, when everyone heard that it was Xu Beihong's work, they felt a little surprised, and Qiao Qingtai couldn't wait to let Meng Yi take out the painting first.

This painting is not big, only more than two square feet, but this is Xu Beihong's work after all, if it is big, it cannot be worth only two or three hundred thousand.

"Pine Crane Prolonging the Year" is a traditional theme of birthday celebration, and there are not many of Xu Beihong's works, and the shape of the crane in this work is also derived from traditional painting.

In the painting, the crane stands on one leg on the branch of a pine tree, looking sideways and looking into the distance.

The crane outlines the shape with lines, depicts the feathers in ink, is composed of black and white, only the top of the crane is painted with cinnabar, the eyes are pale yellow, the ink is distinct, the lines are vigorous and powerful, and the tall body. Elegant posture, quiet contemplation. All show the wind bones of cranes.

In the painting, the pine trees are painted with light ink, and the brushwork is relatively rough. In contrast to cranes. In addition, the seal of this painting is "King Sun of the East China Sea", and judging from the inscription, it should be a work given to a friend in 1941.

Although this is the theme of birthday celebration, it is not rich and warm, and at the same time it shows the grace of the brush, compared with many of Xu Beihong's large paintings, this work has a more calm and free bearing. Immediately, Zhu Dafu and Qiao Qingtai couldn't help but praise loudly.

After a while, Zhu Dafu suddenly remembered a question. With a strange expression, he asked: "Xiao Meng, I think this work is very good, but you just said that this work is not sure to be genuine, is there anything in it?" ”

"Indeed!" Meng Yixian nodded and said: "The family members of the friends in the inscription on this painting are my friends, but it's strange here, after I bought this painting, I went to my friend's house to ask, but he said that there was no such thing at all." ”

Something that wasn't meant to be delivered. But it came out, as long as you are not stupid, you must know that there is something wrong with this work. This made Zhu Dafu's Qiao Qingtai a little unbelievable for a while, because this painting was in their eyes. It's just like the real thing, but how can it end up being a fake?

Zhu Dafu immediately asked, "Xiao Meng, could it be that something was sent?" But because something happened during the period, or because I hid it. That's why the family doesn't know. ”

"I've thought of that, too." Meng Yixian said: "But my friend said that this possibility is not impossible. But it can be said that it is very small, and it is unlikely that his elders will hide this kind of thing. ”

"Since there is still a glimmer of hope, then you didn't ask someone else to help identify it?" Qiao Qingtai asked.

Meng Yixian said: "No, although I received this painting in the ghost market, the price was not high at that time, otherwise I finally encountered a work by Xu Beihong, how could I give up." It's just that after I asked my friends to see it, some of them said that they were true, and some of them said that they were not optimistic, and in the end, I was confused and couldn't figure out whether the painting was real or fake. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Dafu and Qiao Qingtai were a little embarrassed, saying that things were fake, but they couldn't see what the problem was, let's say it was true, even the master's family had already said that, they couldn't make something out of nothing, right?

Just as Zhu Dafu was frowning, he suddenly remembered that from just now to now, Chu Chen had been silent, and when he looked back, he found that Chu Chen was looking at the painting intently.

After a while, Chu Chen raised his head and found that everyone was staring at him, he couldn't help but be a little strange, and asked, "Why are you looking at me like this?" ”

Zhu Dafu said with a smile: "What else to do, of course, listen to your opinion on this painting." ”

Chu Chen scratched his head and said, "How can I say it, I just think there is something very strange, you look at the crane claw." ”

"Crane Claw?"

Everyone hurriedly looked over when they heard this, and at first everyone didn't find any problems, but after a while, Qiao Qingtai was very surprised and said, "Why do I think that there are only three toes on the right paw of this crane?" ”

Hearing him say this, Zhu Dafu and Meng Yixian also reacted, and they took a closer look and found that this was really the case.

Because the style of this painting is more relaxed and free, the left foot lifted on the picture looks more casual, but no matter how casual, the number of toes always has to be tabled, and it is impossible to say that four toes have become three.

However, when the forger paints, it is possible that if the painting is not in place, it will be wrong, but the biggest feature of Xu Beihong's works is the word "accurate", which also makes this problem one of the biggest flaws in the whole painting.

As for the reason why no one has noticed this problem before, it is also because the counterfeiter may have deliberately dealt with some plausibility, which looks like it is right, and the other foot is correct, so it is easy to ignore the error.

Seeing this situation, the three of them no longer knew what to say, Meng Yixian sighed and said: "Hey, a fake is a fake, no matter how it is, it can't be true!" ”

Zhu Dafu patted him on the shoulder and comforted: "Xu Beihong has a lot of fakes, and there are many fakes that can be faked, and even some experts have been stunned. Besides, the level of imitation of your work is very high, and it still has some collectible value. ”

In today's painting and calligraphy market, Xu Beihong's works are very popular among collectors, so it is common to sell fakes. Now the number of forgeries in Xu Beihong's works has exceeded the number of genuine works, and the methods of forgery, such as cloning as they are, changing positions, transferring flowers and grafts, patching together, etc., can be said to be varied.

In fact, after listening to his friend's answer, Meng Yixian also knew that the possibility of his things being faked was very high, so although he was a little depressed now, he was not too sad, besides, after so many years of antique business, this matter was actually nothing to him.

Listening to what Zhu Dafu said, he nodded with a smile and said: "That's right, anyway, I only spent two hundred yuan to buy this painting, and at the level of this painting, it must be worth it." ”

Zhu Dafu smiled when he heard this, and then asked Chu Chen: "Xiaochen, didn't you say that there are two places where there are problems?" Where else is it? ”

Chu Chen pointed to the inscription and said: "Xu Beihong's calligraphy is generally swayed casually, the pen is natural, the lines are smooth, and his temperament is naturally revealed in it, but the inscription of this work, I feel that there is a trace of freedom and ease, compared with the painting, there is less of this taste, I think it is genuine, it should not be like this......"

Since they knew that this work was a fake, when the three of them came to observe it again, the more they looked at it, the more it was not like that, although there was a subjective factor in this, but this was mainly due to the lack of skill of the counterfeiter.

"Forget it, let's take a look at this three-legged plate." After reading it, Meng Yi shook his head first, put the painting away, and then took out the copper cloisonné enamel three-legged plate in another brocade box.

When the thing was taken out, Zhu Dafu didn't look at it first, but asked, "Xiao Meng, what's wrong with this three-legged plate?" ”

"I received this plate yesterday afternoon, and I thought it was good, so it cost me 2,000 yuan, but when I came back and looked at it again, I always felt that there was something wrong with it, but I didn't know what the problem was. Originally, I was going to ask someone to help me take a look today, but I didn't expect you to come, which just saved me trouble. At the end, Meng Yixian laughed a few times.

Zhu Dafu said angrily: "I said Xiao Meng, you are really getting more and more bold to buy things, I remember that you don't know much about cloisonné, and you will actually buy it for two thousand because you feel good!" ”

"It's not because it's cheap!" Meng Yi smiled first.

"Cheap?!" Zhu Dafu said with a smile: "Let's buy things in this business, is it cheap?" Meng Yixian, Meng Yixian! Do you feel too good about yourself, or do you live more and more and go back, this is a truth that even newcomers understand, and you, the shopkeeper who has been playing for more than ten or twenty years, will you forget it? ”

Not only Zhu Dafu, but Chu Chen and Qiao Qingtai also felt that since Meng Yixian had been in the antique business for so many years, it was really undesirable to have such a mentality.

As mentioned above, you must not be greedy for antiques when buying antiques, if you buy antiques with the mentality of picking up leaks, there are countless examples of losses in the antique industry. Of course, it is also possible that Meng Yixian felt that things were cheap, even if they were fakes.

However, fakes in the antique market are "producing" all the time, you buy one today when you think it's cheap, tomorrow you think it's cheap, you can't buy it all, even if you can't buy it, you can't buy it all, and in the end you get only a lot of fakes, and the gratitude of the counterfeiters and sellers.

This kind of behavior is called atmosphere if it sounds good, but it is ugly to say that people are stupid and have a lot of money.

Listening to Zhu Dafu's words, Meng Yixian couldn't help but blush with shame, speaking of which, he also understood the truth of what Zhu Dafu said, but the smooth sailing in the past few years has greatly reduced the vigilance in his heart, so sometimes he just comes by his own feelings.

Fortunately, his luck was good, and he didn't suffer any big losses during the period, but if he continued like this, he would suffer a big loss sooner or later. (To be continued......)