Riding the wind of rebirth

This is nonsense. At that time, European powers began to invade China and plundered a large number of cultural relics to the West. The Avar family was a large collecting family. Even if they were not particularly interested in Chinese porcelain, they still added a lot to their collection even if they collected some casually.

More than a hundred years passed, and the price of oriental artworks had soared to a considerable level, and the Avar family felt it was time to sell them.

As a great collector of Western art, the Avar family was very astute, but they were somewhat confused when it came to handling Eastern art.

As the saying goes, "Take every penny and use it like dirt."

However, it is precisely because the Avar family's reputation for oriental collections is so far behind their Western collections, coupled with the problem Zhou Zhi just mentioned, that is, the origins of the lost Chinese porcelain are too complicated, which has led to buyers' concerns about the Avar family's oriental collections.

In fact, for the Avar family, just like An Siyuan hired Zhou Zhi, the problem could be solved by hiring a reputable expert in oriental porcelain appraisal to appraise the family collection and produce a set of collection albums. However, this family seems to find it troublesome to even do this and is unwilling to spend so much energy.

It's difficult to do a job without the right skills. Such a sloppy approach limits most of the entrants. Zhou Zhi doesn't know if this is the last pride of the Avar family, that is, they don't want to deal with unprofessionals.

There are many such practices in the cultural and art circles that Zhou Zhi has come into contact with, such as the old man who picks up rubbish from Lu Qiao's hometown in Meishan, and old man Lu who sells the Rouge Purple Lai Fu disc at the Daliushu ghost market. They all have such a "spirit".

"So you bought everything for them?" Zhou Zhi asked Lin Wanqiu curiously.

"That's possible. There are thousands of pieces." Lin Wanqiu shook her head and said, "But as the first batch of invited participants, the quality of the 100 or so pieces of porcelain we received is still quite good."

"Maybe the Avar family wants to create momentum."

Zhou Zhi inspects porcelain smoothly and quickly. He first picks up the object, examines the glaze color and glaze surface, and then draws circles on the upper edge and bottom of the porcelain with the tips of his fingers. He detects the density, porcelain texture, smoothness, and glaze thickness of the inner body of the porcelain by touch.

Combined with the visual understanding of the painting style, craftsmanship, degree of refinement, base style, shape, glaze, as well as flint red, clam luster, and gem luster, it is actually not difficult to get started with these relatively easy-to-understand porcelains.

"Sister Wanqiu, sometimes I feel guilty being your collection consultant." Zhou Zhi put down the porcelain bowl in his hand, took a pen to write down his appraisal opinion, and picked up a square bottle.

"Why do you say that?" Mai Xiaomiao was very curious. She actually liked Lin Wanqiu, this energetic, confident and generous older sister.

"Because the labor fee is too easy to earn." Zhou Zhi shook his head: "Compared with the difficulty of going to the ghost market in Daliushu, the identification of these porcelains is not at the same level at all."

"It seems that the goods you found in the ghost market have to be re-identified during the day?" Lin Wanqiu admired Zhou Zhi's skills very much and was particularly interested in his little story about identification.

"In fact, it is best to identify porcelain during the day, under natural light." Zhou Zhi turned the square bottle in his hand: "At night, your eyesight will be at least half as good as before."

"Then how did you find so many good things?!" Lin Wanqiu was a little angry and felt that Zhou Zhi was showing off.

“Haha, good luck, good luck…” “This bottle…it doesn’t look like something from China at all.” Li Laosan looked at the square bottle in Zhou Zhi’s hand: “It looks like a Xibei product!”

"This... is not only authentic, but also a fine product from the Qianlong official kiln. It is also the most precious kind of official kiln porcelain." Zhou Zhi said: "This is enamel."

"Enamel? Isn't enamel a traditional French craft?"

"Enamel is actually a glaze imported from Europe to China during the Qing Dynasty. French enamel is the most refined. Brother San, you said it is a traditional French craft, which is also correct."

"It is easy to imagine how precious this glaze was at that time. Therefore, enamel glaze was exclusively used by the palace. Even the Jingde official kiln, which was responsible for firing royal tribute porcelain, was not qualified to use it. Instead, the white porcelain bodies were fired in Jingde first, transported to the palace, and then painted with enamel by painters in the palace workshops. The porcelain was then fired a second time in the palace's inner official kiln to obtain the enamel glaze."

"But this picture..."

The picture of this porcelain vase is indeed a bit strange. The square vase has a thin neck and a square mouth, with a pair of pan-shaped dragon ears, which are common in Chinese porcelain, hanging on both sides.

Apart from the slightly inconsistent proportions between the belly and the neck of the bottle, the workmanship is still quite fine. The ears of the Chilong are gray-purple, and the body of the bottle is bright khaki, which is a relatively simple background color among Qianlong porcelain.

If everything up to this point was relatively ordinary, the theme image would be too bizarre.

There is a painting on all four sides of the square bottle, and the painting also has a border. In traditional themes, this kind of painting method is called "opening the light" or "opening the window."

However, unlike the opening paintings on traditional Qianlong official kiln porcelain, whose frames are generally designed to imitate the gate frames of Suzhou gardens, the "window frame" of this square bottle is the acanthus pattern that is very common in the West.

Acanthus is a Mediterranean plant. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, it symbolizes wisdom and art. It was first used in the decoration of the Corinthian columns in ancient Greece. In ancient Greece and Rome, it was widely used in buildings and art design. Later, it became the most common decorative theme in all Western-style art.

The acanthus patterns on the bottle are designed in the form of Roman marble relief scrolls, replacing the Chinese-style windows and are full of the three-dimensional sense of Western art.

The paintings in the window are even more magical. All four paintings are of people. One is a mother and son fishing by the river, one is a young man and woman chatting intimately, one is a girl meditating in the garden, and the last one is a nobleman and his servant hunting with a hound.

The scenery backgrounds of these characters are all painted in Chinese style, using the deep, flat and high composition of landscape painting. The texture and strokes used for the mountains, rocks and trees are the work of masters of traditional Chinese painting.

However, it becomes interesting when it comes to the characters. They are all Western characters, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and fair skin. They wear top hats and dresses. The men wear tight pants, and the women wear Western skirts. They also wear crowns and hairpins, and are quite revealing and bold.

This is why Li Laosan was confused. Visually, this porcelain vase is full of stories and scenes, and is a typical European picture. Various flower and butterfly patterns are painted on the neck, abdomen and bottom as complex decorations. Except for the two small dragon ears, it is all in a pure Western style.

Li Laosan can even name this style - Rococo. (End of this chapter)