In the early days, most of the Chinese materials were used in colored balls, bowls, bottles, zun, cups and other daily necessities, which were exquisite and unique. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Shandong Boshan material artefacts, Beijing interior painting snuff bottle painters, began to paint patterns in the material snuff bottles, won people's love.

Therefore, in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, snuff bottles were all the rage and flowed overseas, and many European and American art collectors collected Chinese snuff bottles. Glass is a work in which raw materials are melted and poured into a special mold to form at one time.

The material is to use silicate and other metal oxides and other raw materials, after high temperature melting, pulled into various specifications of the stick, the artist uses various colors of the stick to grill on the lamp, to be softened quickly kneaded plastic, the use of simple small tools sometimes pull, sometimes sticky, sometimes with scissors hinge, sometimes with tweezers to drag, to create a variety of works, a bit like pinching candy people.

Compared with the glaze, the feeder has no bottom tire, and it is an improvised work that the artist completes at one time in the fire. There are transparent material beasts, hanging screens, smoking sets, bonsai, flowers, birds, fish and insects, as well as rings, hat flowers, material beads, etc., the shape is vivid and cute, among which the birds and beasts of the material vessels are imitated into jade, jade, agate, coral, etc. by traditional techniques, the color is realistic, and it has a unique style and charm.

Originally, when the material artist was working, he used edible vegetable oil and rush grass oil lamp, in order to make the lamp bright and change to horizontal burning, he had to put a thin glass tube in his mouth and blow air to the fire from the side to warm the barbecue stick, so the material artist got a common name of "blowing work".

By the end of the 20s of the 19th century, it was changed to gas pumping, and it was not until 1965 that it was switched to gas blowtorch production, and this production method has continued to this day. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor ordered the Ministry of Industry to set up a royal factory in today's glaze factory, and sent officials to supervise the production of materials and glazed products, which were specially used for the inner palace to enjoy and use, and were called "palace materials" and "imperial glaze" at that time.

The folk material production is concentrated in the flower market area of Chongwen District, Beijing, which is one of the unique handicrafts in Beijing. Zhao Jiugao, who opened the "Siyi Gonghao" chemical workshop in the flower market, Jiang Wenliang, the head of the "Zhiyuan" material workshop in the flower market, Wang Fu, the head of the "Changfeng" material workshop, and Yue Ziyuan, a rising star who integrates production and marketing, are known as the four major schools of material production.

The material ware is also called "glassware", which can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty at the earliest, and there are different sayings such as "Miao Lin", "Huoqi", "Liuli", "Po Li", "Mingyue Zhu", etc., and the translucent one is usually called "glass" in archaeology, and the transparent one is called "glass", which is basically a by-product produced when the bronze is cast, and is made after refining and processing.

Liu Xing, the seventh-generation descendant of "Beijing Material" and a famous materialist artist, said that in the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, China has daily necessities and decorations made of colored glass. In the Song Dynasty, due to the prevalence of viewing lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, colorful glass lamps appeared.

Glazed bricks and glazed reliefs also appeared on the building, as well as a transparent glaze, which was called "glass" at the time. After the Yuan Dynasty set up the capital of Beijing, many glazed workshops were established in the area of Liulichang outside the Peace Gate to provide materials for the construction of the imperial palace.

After the Ming Dynasty, Beijing materials have developed rapidly. During the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor ordered the Ministry of Industry to set up an imperial factory in Beijing Liuli Factory to worship the inner court, called "palace material" and "imperial glaze".

It can be seen that the production and development of the material is inseparable from the glaze, and it is the redevelopment of the glaze process. From about the Ming Dynasty, influenced by the fine glass products carried by Western missionaries to China, the Chinese imperial family decided to develop this new art variety, thus leading to the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty.

Simplicity and profound connotation are the characteristics of this period. However, due to the fragile nature, it is very rare for the material of the Ming Dynasty to be handed down to the present.

By the 35th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1696), the first large-scale material manufacturing plant appeared in Beijing, which was established by the royal family. The site is in today's "Liuli Factory". This is where the name of the place comes from.

Liu Xing said that the Qing Dynasty was the most glorious period in the history of the development of ancient glassware in China, when the glaze factory specialized in the production of materials for the imperial palace, exquisite and unique, gorgeous colors, and complex craftsmanship. Due to the very small number of circulation, it can be seen from the previous auctions that the price of fine palace materials has been rising, for example, in the autumn auction of 2005, Christie's Hong Kong auction house has launched a Qing Qianlong? The imperial tire enamel painted landscape figure pattern cup was sold at a price of more than 1.9 million yuan.

In 2006, Sotheby's Hong Kong auction house launched a Qing Qianlong? The white tire painting enamel flower stone phoenix pattern bottle was sold at a price of 636,000 yuan. In the 2007 auction market in Hong Kong, a piece of imperial material tire painting enamel Western mother and child picture pen holder hit a sky-high price of more than 6,400 yuan. The feeder has become a new collector.

In addition to the birds, beasts and flowers used to make the material, different metal additives can be added to the material to imitate different kinds of handicrafts. It turned out that Chen Dehai of Beijing Feeder Factory had used material, to imitate "Tang Sancai", "Bronze" and other cultural relics, and its vivid shape and simple and realistic texture left a deep impression on people.

The varieties of utensils involve a wide range, including daily necessities, ornaments, jewelry, small sculptures, etc., among which the largest number and the most distinctive utensils are none other than small and delicate snuff bottles, which are the most prestigious produced in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty.

Most of the materials in Beijing are extracted from Boshan, Zibo, Shandong, another blessed land of feeders, which has a low melting point and strong plasticity. In terms of color alone, there are red, yellow, blue, white, black and other colors of single-color tire snuff bottles, as well as imitation of various jade colors.

The multi-color tire snuff bottle is made of two or more color materials, which are different from spots, stirring, and lotus root powder. The more colors a nesting snuff bottle has, the more complex the process will be, and the higher its value will be.

This is also because the material snuff bottle is expensive in workmanship, not in texture. Among them, the snuff bottles of the Kangxi period are exquisite, simple, elegant and gorgeous, but they are very rare; The snuff bottles in the Yongzheng period were mainly made by the palace house, with novel style, exquisite workmanship, and round and generous appearance; During the Qianlong period, most of the products were flat and small circles, and the whole body was painted with delicate and complex patterns, and the carcass was mostly transparent glass or nirvana glass.

At this time, the shape is also the most diverse, in addition to the traditional bottle, can, flat, square, double, triple, plum and other shapes, but also appeared baby play, animals, melons and fruits, characters, etc., can be regarded as the glory in the history of the material.

In fact, feeders are not new to the world of collecting. In the early days, most of the Chinese materials were colored balls, bowls, bottles, zun, lamps and other daily necessities. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Shandong Boshan material artemen and Beijing snuff bottle painters began to paint patterns in the snuff bottles, which were well received.

Therefore, in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, snuff bottles were all the rage and flowed overseas, and many European and American art collectors collected Chinese snuff bottles.

When it comes to "glass", many people may be even more unfamiliar. In recent years, Taiwanese glass handicraft brands such as "Liuli Workshop" have become popular in the mainland, so that many people have a direct perception of Liuli. However, Liu Xing said that unlike contemporary Taiwanese glazed artworks, traditional materials have many differences in both manufacturing methods and materials.

Many of today's glazed products are actually cast from molds, so they are still reproducible no matter how they are "limited editions". However, the traditional feeder is to melt the raw materials such as silicates and other metal oxides at high temperature and pull them into various specifications of material sticks, and the artist uses various colored material sticks to barbecue on the lamp, and quickly knead and mold them after softening, giving full play to the luster, colorful, soft and mysterious characteristics of the glass material.

Compared with glaze, the material has no bottom tire, and the production depends on human experience and craftsmanship, improvised in the flame of the blowtorch, also known as "sculpture in the fire". The handmade craftsmanship also makes the works unique and makes it more precious.

In terms of materials, many formulas of Taiwan glaze have incorporated many modern elements, and Taiwan glaze is actually "European glass". However, the feeder is still made of traditional Chinese glass, which has a lower melting point and a different chemical composition.

Thoughts about Lao Liuli:

First, low-temperature sintering, because the temperature is not high, the shape of the vessel is not very regular, and the surface is not very smooth;

The second dye is a natural mineral grinding, and there will be discoloration on the details of the parts due to the uneven temperature during sintering;

Third, due to the different heating and low temperature, there will be superposition of melting layers due to different parts (to see the inside in the light, sometimes to use a magnifying glass), resulting in the overall internal texture is not pure

According to folklore, there was a Guangdong Zhang surnamed Xiucai in the Ming Dynasty, who went to Beijing to take the exam, failed the three exams, and had no food and clothing. One day of wandering, he picked up a broken bracelet, returned to the hotel, put it on the fire and barbecued, kneaded a colored stone with a natural shape, saw that it could be used as a jewelry stone, and sent it to the jewelry building to try his luck.

These stones are very popular when they are set into rings, earrings, and necklaces. Since then, this Zhang Xiucai has never entered the examination room again, bought some "wide materials", and concentrated on making jewelry stones.

In the Qing Dynasty, the material was further developed, during the Kangxi period, the emperor ordered the Ministry of Industry to set up the imperial factory in the glaze factory today, and sent officials to supervise the production of the material and glazed products, which were specially used for the inner palace to enjoy and use, and were called "palace materials" and "imperial glaze".

In the Qianlong period, as a well-known "exquisite" emperor in history, the Qianlong Emperor thought that the pronunciation of "glass" or "glass" was unlucky, and officially named the glass with craftsmanship as "material". Since then, the term feeder has been officially written into the annals of history.

From the first year of Qianlong to the thirtieth year of Qianlong, it was the peak period of material manufacturing, when there were as many as 42 factories and warehouses for making and storing material vessels, with an annual output of tens of thousands of ceremonial items, furnishings, decorations and Buddhist hall supplies. In the 20th year of Qianlong, he made 500 snuff bottles and 3,000 utensils for rewards. It can be seen that the productivity and status of the feeder at that time were high.

The materials produced by the Qing court office are of high quality and rich in color, there are more than 30 kinds of monochrome materials alone, as well as Venus, materials, silk winding, etc., and the shape is also very rich in Chinese characteristics. At that time, nesting could be used in 2-8 colors, which was a testament to the highest level of skill.

During this period, a group of masters who were good at making materials also emerged in the court, especially the director surnamed Hu during the Qianlong period. The feeders he fired were made of the finest white materials, and blown into snuff bottles, vases, bowls, and plates; Then the enamel glaze is painted on the extremely thin tire and fired at high temperature.

These superb works from his hands are not only exquisite in workmanship, but also delicate in their brushstrokes. One of the most famous is the snuff bottle he made, which later generations called "Gu Yuexuan". In order to distinguish it from the inner painting pot, some people also call the rare treasure "Gu Yuexuan" as the "outer painting pot".

Nesting is an important invention of Beijing feeder. From the record of Zhao Zhiqian's "Yonglu Gossip", it can be known that it began in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, with white glass to paste stained glass patterns, mainly with a set of one color, more than two colors are called and set, as well as stained glass ground with colored glass, the patterns are all milled into a square; During the Qianlong period, nesting became popular, and it was called Qianlong glass abroad.

During the Qianlong period, the Beijing material snuff bottle was quite prestigious, there were three famous shops of the Xin family, the Le family, and the Yuan family, and the Xin family material snuff bottle was the cleanest, and the brilliance was dazzling. In the late Qing Dynasty, he invented the painting of portraits, figures, landscapes, birds, beasts, fish and algae on the inner wall of the transparent material snuff bottle, which was called the inner painting pot, and the famous artists were Zhou Leyuan, Ye Zhongsan, etc.

After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, with the gradual decline of the country's power, the employment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has shrunk sharply, and many court craftsmen have entered Beijing to make a living, which has promoted the integration of court and folk skills, and the shape of the material has become more abundant, making Beijing stand out as the representative of the national material production.

In the twentieth year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Kun and his apprentice Jia Fulai in Beijing used "Guang material" and "foreign material" (that is, Japanese material sticks) to burn ring face stones, sharp stones, and twist needles for export.

During the period of the Republic of China, glass factories, material shops and large and small fonts that produced materials in the capital appeared one after another in the south of the city. The products of the material industry artists include birds, animals, flowers, etc., and can be made into imitation gemstones, jadeite, agate beads, earrings, finger rings, pins, animals, etc.

In 1914, Jiang Chaozong invested in the establishment of Guangming Glass Ware Factory to produce materials for export, which was also the first private glass factory in Beijing. In 1929, there was a batch of Japanese Western food forks, and each one was required to be decorated with a feeder chick.

Since then, the artisans have begun to fire individual animals, and the most popular shapes are the 12 phases. Later, there were two workshops specializing in the production of feeder animals: "Jiangjiamen" (Zhiyuan) and "Wangjiamen" (Changfeng).

Due to the different operating techniques of the two companies, the charm and temperament of the works have their own merits. In the following 30 years, "Zhiyuan" and "Changfeng" competed for development, and successively cultivated many outstanding apprentices, and later the apprentices produced and recruited artists independently, so that the material works have great development in terms of production technology and subject matter.

In 1941, on the eve of the outbreak of the Pacific War, the number of employees in Beijing has grown to nearly 100, including nearly 30 people who make birds and animals, and more than 20 colors. However, due to years of war, exports stopped, domestic demand also decreased, and the material, like other handicraft industries, closed down and changed careers.

In order to make a living, handicraftsmen pull foreign carts, work as hawkers, and work part-time, and the whole industry is a bleak scene. In the early post-war period, although the material industry recovered, it was affected by the heavy impact of the war, and many craftsmen still did not dare to return to their old jobs.

The production tools of Beijing feeder are relatively simple. With the development of production technology in various periods, the feeder tools have also changed greatly. A long time ago, the material maker was made by putting various colored sticks on charcoal and grilling them, and kneading them with tweezers. Later, he switched to using a sesame oil fire lamp, using his mouth to blow air to warm the barbecue stick, and then kneading and molding it with tweezers while burning.

Due to years of biting the skin tube with their teeth and blowing, many people have lost their front teeth, and some old people still call the material artist "blowing material". By the end of the 20s of the 19th century, this method was changed to use an air cylinder to pump gas, but the disadvantage of this method is that it is too wasteful of vegetable oil, and the production environment conditions are also poor.

In 1965, a new feeder factory building was built in Beijing, and the way of producing feeders was improved, mainly by using the method of gas blowtorches, which has continued to this day.

It is the key to grasp the heat in the feeder process, if the roasting temperature is too high, the feeder is easy to deform, and if the temperature is too low, it will explode. The process of making the material is a bit like the technique of the candy man, mainly relying on the craftsman's proper grasp of the shape of the object, and the recipe is also very important.

Generally speaking, there is no difference between the raw materials of the feeder and the glass and glass, all of which use silicate or some other metal oxides, but for different works, the metal oxides added are completely different, and some will put some precious metals such as gold and silver.

There is a craftsman named Chen Dehai in Beijing Feeder Factory, and his craftsmanship in making feeders is superb. He once made shapes such as "Tang Sancai" and "Bronze", with vivid and realistic shapes and realistic textures, and everyone who saw them was amazed.

These are all fine products of feeder production, the aforementioned material, known as "Gu Yuexuan", because no one knows the recipe and specific processing technology used in its production at that time, no one has been able to manufacture the same kind of material.

Speaking of feeder grapes, old Beijingers know the famous "grape often". Don't look at the bunches of frit grapes that are inconspicuous, but there is a legendary story of the Chang family, a craftsman in Beijing.

"Grape Chang" is a unique variety of material craft in Beijing, which is a grape-shaped artwork made of glass. Due to its high skill and speciality, the grapes made can be faked and authentic, and they are well-known at home and abroad.

There is also an unusual story about the origin of "Grape Constant". It was in the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, there was an old Mongolian man named Han Qiharibu on the flower market street in Beijing, because of his poor family, he made a living by making mud gourds and mud figures. Later, he was inspired by clay toys to imitate grape beads, painted them with colors, and strung them into a pout with fine slivers.

After the business boomed, he further improved the process, using glass as raw material, fired glass grapes, and sold them in the market, which were quickly sold out and began to become famous. The tenth day of the tenth lunar month of the twentieth year of Guangxu is the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, in Beijing, the leaves of the trees had long since withered and yellowed, and they were swept to the ground by gusts of autumn wind. The Empress Dowager Cixi was watching a play on the Grand Stage of the Summer Palace, and found bunches of fresh grapes hanging in front of the stage, and asked someone to pick them for her to eat. The minister knelt down and said it was an ornament, a fake grape.

Cixi didn't believe it, but when she touched it with her own hands, she was convinced that it was fake, and ordered someone to call Han Qiharibu, praised his exquisite skills, and rewarded him with the name "Chang Zai", and gave him a handwritten "Tianyi Chang" plaque. This incident caused a sensation in the capital, and the reputation of "Grape Chang" was shocked.

"Chang Zai" so opened the "Tianyi Chang" workshop in the East Flower Market outside Chongwen Gate in Beijing, and some foreign businessmen also rushed to order, and the products soon sold well at home and abroad.

After the death of the old man, his sons Ihambu and Zalumbu inherited their father's business, inherited and developed the craft of "Grape Chang", and the glass grapes made were exported to many countries and regions such as the United States, France, Britain and Germany.

In 1914, the Grape Chang brothers carefully produced a set of grapes in various colors and colors at the Panama Exposition and won a certificate. To this day, the San Francisco Museum in the United States still displays Ihamb's masterpieces. In the Forbidden City in Beijing, there is also a "descendant and ten thousand generations" gourd made by "Grape Chang".

After the death of the Ihambu brothers, the family workshop of Grape Chang was run by Chang Yuling and her three aunts and one sister, and was presided over by the second aunt Chang Guilu. In order to keep the stunt of Grape Chang from being passed on, the five swore not to marry for life, and they were called the Five Virgins of Grape Chang. Take a look at the latest chapters of "Dream Claw Book House in the Great Era" and read it for free for the first time.