He Junwen looked at the full house of collections, and said smugly: "The ivory artworks handed down in ancient times, due to the exquisite artistic carvings and the value of the ivory itself, have been in the international art market for many years, and after the 90s of the last century, European and American countries will include ivory in the prohibited items, so ivory carvings only occasionally appear in the Southeast Asian art market, and the price rises every year." ”

Pointing to a piece of the collection, he said: "At the 1993 Sufuby auction, the pair of ivory-inlaid emerald coral palace lamps placed in the Qing Dynasty court were luxurious and dazzling. After many bidders, I finally won the auction for 4.2 million Hong Kong dollars, which was also a record at that time. ”

"There is also this 2000 Qing Kangxi ivory lacquer engraved plum blossom pen holder, I got it with 710,000 yuan, and now someone has come out to 3 million. ”

"This 2002 mammoth ivory carving, the dragon travels the world, someone paid 8 million Hong Kong dollars, I didn't give up. ”

"The value of the 2005 "Han Xizai's Night Banquet" carved from a whole ivory rose to 8.8 million yuan, and the estimate and transaction price of the ivory carvings at the auction house have increased at least several times in the past two years!"

Wen Yiming nodded in agreement, there are hundreds of categories of collections, bamboo and wood tooth corners are miscellaneous, among which wood is the mainstream, whether it is paper room or furniture, it is considered a popular item.

Then there is bamboo, bamboo carving is also inherited for thousands of years, famous masters, now the market is going all the way up, and it is difficult to find high-quality products.

As for ivory and rhino horn, they are rare things, raw materials are rare, and there are very few fine products left, so they have been sought after by dignitaries and nobles since ancient times.

Elephants are mainly found in India, Thailand, Myanmar and other places in Africa and Asia, and African male and female elephants have tusks and are also long. The tusks of the elephant elephant produced at the equator in eastern Africa are nine feet long, making them the longest ivory.

African ivory is mostly pale yellow, with fine texture, good luster and high hardness, but it is easy to crack in the case of temperature differences.

Asian female elephants do not produce ivory, the color of the ivory produced in various places is relatively white, but after a period of time, it will gradually age, the color is yellow, the luster is also poor, and the hardness of the dentin is lower than that of African ivory.

Ivory has a delicate texture, moderate hardness, soft luster, and fine tooth lines, which is a good natural material for making high-end handicrafts.

He Junwen walked to the bookcase, took out a collection, and offered it with both hands: "This is the incense tube that I accidentally got in the early years, and the so-called sword is given to heroes, please accept it with a smile." ”

Wen Yiming took the incense tube, the hand felt warm and moist like jade, the surface of the ivory was pale yellow, as crystal clear as topaz, very beautiful.

The shape of the incense tube is similar to the chopstick cage used by the people, and it is an elegant indoor furnishing. Put special spices or fragrant flowers into the cylinder, so that the aroma overflows from the pores of the cylinder wall and the cylinder lid.

The materials are diverse, boxwood is the most common, or made of red sandalwood, bamboo, etc., the material is very exquisite, the craftsmanship is exquisite, the cutting and carving work is mostly hollow, can be carved with ivory, the seven sages of the bamboo forest are lifelike, it must be the palace royal boutique.

"Crystal like jade, natural finches, deep pulp, top grade!"

Hearing Wen Yiming's praise, He Junwen smiled, the other party was satisfied, the so-called vote for his liking, today I saw the magic of incense, no wonder Hu Jianmin admired this young man so much, it was really unfathomable.

Smelling the incense stick, the epidermis of the ivory will age, and the surface will begin to turn yellow after a long time, and then gradually turn from light yellow to turmeric, dark yellow, until light brown.

The color of the same ivory is often different shades, and with the change of color, some utensils will also appear on the surface of short hair-like light lines, which are called finch silk. The older the ivory, the more numerous, darker, darker, and longer the finch is, like the rings of a tree, from which the approximate age of the ivory can be calculated.

"This should be the work of Wu Nanyu, a famous ivory carver in the Qing Dynasty, in the south and in the north of Wu. He Junwen pointed to the style and introduced: "Yu Shuo is good at using blind engraving, that is, in the case of unclear to the naked eye, it is carved by the feeling of the knife, and the knife is powerful, the intention is to use the knife first, prioritize, do whatever you want, move the knife like a pen, handy, the words are coherent, smooth and natural, and the depth of its skill is jaw-dropping." ”

Wu Nanyu, who is as famous as Yu Shuo, can engrave more than 1,000 words on the ivory surface of a five-minute circle, and has a close atmosphere. It is unrecognizable with a magnifying glass, and I don't know why it is superb. ”

"Since the Kangxi period, the ivory carving craftsmen who were recruited to the Qing Palace Office have been constantly innovating the process, and it is not easy to make the emperor truly satisfied. Because in the early Qing Dynasty, the emperor thought that the ivory carvings in Suzhou, Ning, Hangzhou, Jia, Guangdong and other places had the atmosphere of external creation, rough and stupid, which did not meet the taste of the court. ”

"Especially the Yongzheng Emperor, the artistic standard is extremely high, not only elegant but also exquisite. These craftsmen had to compose the drawings carefully to the royal family's beyond, avoiding the flaws of overarching and blade-clearing. ”

In the ivory carving, the painting style and bamboo carving skills are blended, so that the work is more graceful and delicate than the simple and concise style of the north, and compared with the complicated carving method of the southern school, it is delicate and elegant, meticulous and concise. ”

"Among them, the best of them were appreciated by the emperor because of their design and engraving, so they were able to get extra favor and leave their own knowledge on the works. For example, the Forbidden City's collection of Huang Zhenxiao's fisherman's music pen holder and cloud dragon pattern fire chain cover, Li Juelu's small square box, Chen Zuzhang's Yueman Qing travel book, etc. ”

"Especially this kind of ghost ball, ingenious, can no longer be described in words as subtle!"

Wen Yiming looked at the ivory ball in front of him, the interior was staggered and overlapped, exquisite, and the surface was engraved with various relief patterns. From the outside to the inside, the sphere is made up of several layers of hollow balls, which appear to be just a sphere on the outside, but there are layers within the layer.

Each ball rotates freely and has the same center of circle. And each set of ivory balls inside and outside is carved with exquisite and complex ornaments, there are several kinds of flowers, dragons and phoenixes and landscape figures.

Breathtaking, you must know that the ball is connected to each other, and it is easy to carve the surface of the outer sphere, but when carving many spheres in the inner layer, due to the limitation of construction space, it is more and more difficult, no wonder it is called the ghost ball!

He Junwen sighed: "By the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, this stunt has developed greatly, the ivory ball has developed from the very beginning of one layer to fourteen layers, and has reached 25 or 28 layers at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and can be carved up to 42 layers at most, which is really a miracle!"

Leaving He's house, I smelled a sound in the car and played with the ivory incense tube, which was not in vain today, and the ivory can also be used to combine incense into medicine. The Compendium of Materia Medica records: ivory, the fire of the heart and kidney, can cure palpitations, wind madness, bone steaming and phlegm heat.

I remember that there are two kinds of incense recipes in Hong's incense spectrum, which just need ivory as a medicine, although the incense tube can be a pity, but in order to combine the incense, I can only endure the pain and cut my love, and dedicate my life to the great cause of incense.