Riding the wind of rebirth

"One of them must be the "Taoye Tujuan" from Haiyun Hall in Hong Kong Island, right?" Lin Wanqiu asked.

"Yes," Ma Ye nodded. "The historical records of ancient porcelain making techniques are mostly described in words, but the most famous one that uses scrolls to depict the process in detail is the collection of Huai Hai Tang displayed in the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. It is a long scroll that is seven meters long and half a meter wide, with the inscription 'Wang Zhicheng' at the end, so it is named 'Wang Zhicheng Taoye Scroll'."

"Although Wang Zhicheng's name sounds very Chinese, he is actually a foreigner, a French Catholic Jesuit missionary named Jean Denis Attiret."

"He learned painting in Lyon since childhood, and later studied in Rome. He was mainly good at oil painting portraits. In the third year of Qianlong's reign, he came to China and became a court painter of the Qing Dynasty. Later, he learned to use Chinese brushes, rice paper and pigments, and Western oil painting techniques such as perspective and color to paint and record Chinese court life. Together with Lang Shining, Ai Qimeng and Andeyi, he was known as the Four Western Painters of the Qing Court, and became a representative of the new style of painting at that time."

"This man actually left quite a few paintings in the Forbidden City, such as the Banquet in Wanshu Garden in the Palace Museum." Zhou Zhi nodded and said, "He is also a very good painter."

For experts in porcelain research, all three have studied Wang Zhicheng's version of "Taoye Tujuan", but Ma Ye and Zhou Zhi studied high-definition picture albums, and only Lin Wanqiu has seen the original.

The other set is not calligraphy and painting, but Guangdong Province's light crimson-colored porcelain plate paintings. The East India Company at that time particularly liked to produce wallpapers and porcelain that reflected oriental life. Among the porcelain plate paintings exported, there was a relatively complete set of light crimson-colored porcelain plate paintings, which were collected overseas.

Apart from these, there are some sporadic blue and white porcelain prints that include Tang Ying's "Taoye Tushuo", but there are only two or three at most, which is far from a complete set.

Zhou Zhi shook his head. "The scroll of Huaihaitang not only gives a relatively complete description of the porcelain production process in the Imperial Kiln Factory, but also spends a lot of space to render the surrounding environment and scenery, making the whole scroll have some poetic and picturesque feelings of lovers and mountains and rivers. However, the signature of 'Wang Zhicheng' at the end of the painting is different from Wang Zhicheng's signature on other paintings. The painting style, coloring and detail painting methods of the scroll are quite different from Wang Zhicheng's own style and the requirements of court paintings."

"That scroll is not an authentic one?" Lin Wanqiu was shocked.

"Well, it's probably not Wang Zhicheng's original work. It's a copy from the Daoguang Dynasty. It's just that the dynasties are close, and the later forgers added Wang Zhicheng's signature to increase the value of the scroll." Zhou Zhi carefully browsed the current scroll and explained to Lin Wanqiu: "Now it seems that the author who painted "Wang Zhicheng Taoye Scroll" must have seen this set of scrolls. But he only took seven classic scenes from these twenty pictures and combined them with mountains and rivers to depict an overall scroll, and there is no text explanation in this set of pictures."

Jingde porcelain has been famous throughout the world since ancient times. The elegant and pure blue and white porcelain, the clear and transparent blue and white exquisite porcelain, the colorful colored glaze porcelain, the quiet and elegant blue and white shadow celadon porcelain, etc. all tell the glory of the "Porcelain Capital" of that era. Jingde has been producing porcelain since the Five Dynasties, and it developed rapidly in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the imperial factory was set up in Zhushan, becoming the national porcelain production center.

"This scroll should have originally been an album leaf, and later on it was pieced together into a scroll with paintings and texts," Zhou Zhi finally straightened up. "Now it seems that Wang Zhicheng's Pottery Scroll has taken 11 scenes of collective labor from this scroll, including quarrying and making mud, sifting and refining mud, making saggers, throwing round vessels, repairing round vessel molds, making blanks for carving vessels, selecting blue pigment, blue and white round vessels, making paintings and carving vessels, dipping and blowing glaze, and carving round vessels with foreign colors, and pieced them together into seven scenes of collective labor, and then painted it."

"Compared to this set of original paintings, the 'Wang Zhicheng Taoye Scroll' lacks scenes such as printing embryo milk materials, putting embryos into kilns, firing embryos and opening kilns, open and dark furnaces, bundling straw into barrels, and worshipping gods and fulfilling wishes. There is also no text description." Zhou Zhi finally looked at Old Lu and Aunt Lu and nodded, "The things are real, and they are indeed objects from the Qianlong period. However, the painting skills are not a little bit weaker than Wang Zhicheng's. It is similar to the painting skills of the 'Wang Zhicheng Taoye Scroll' in the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. It is probably the work of the inner court enamel painters, and it is also not the work of court painters." "To be honest, the archaeological value of this painting is better than its artistic value. And now it is damaged like this..." Zhou Zhi shook his head: "Why don't you put it away."

"Mr. Xiao Zhou, you don't like it?" Aunt Lu said anxiously, "Just give me a price! Besides, didn't Brother Ma say you are an expert in restoration? Even if this painting falls into someone else's hands, you can definitely fix it. If it is fixed, it will still be valuable, right?"

Zhou Zhi still shook his head: "To repair it, it will take a lot of energy and materials. I'm afraid only the people who make a living from weaving at the National Museum would have the mood and energy to do so. If I take it and repair it, it will be too uneconomical."

"Brother, don't say that." Master Ma advised: "If this painting continues to stay with Old Lu, it will really be ruined. You take it. Even if you can't fix it for a while, you know the basics of preservation, so this thing won't continue to deteriorate."

"When I have an idea someday in the future, I can take it out and repair it. It will be a good deed, leaving a detailed picture of the ancient porcelain-making process for the country!"

"I agree with Master Ma on this point." Lin Wanqiu also nodded and said, "He is right. If you keep this painting, at least it won't deteriorate any further."

"Master Ma, has the painting deteriorated compared to what you saw more than a decade ago?"

"Needless to say!" Master Ma said, "This is why I asked you to come and take a look. Actually, many experts had given their opinions on this painting at the time..."

Old Lu quickly stopped Ma Ye from saying what those experts said at the time that the painting was not worth collecting: "Those experts are old, but their level is obviously not as high as Mr. Xiao Zhou. They can say so many things just by looking at it casually. Mr. Xiao Zhou, even if you don't buy it, please tell me how much this painting is worth now, just like my wife said, at least give me a number."

"If we have to talk about the market value, although this painting is an ancient painting from the Qianlong period, it is also intact and from the palace, but it was not created by a famous painter from the Qianlong period, but by an enamel craftsman, so the value will be greatly discounted." Zhou Zhi said: "In addition, this painting is severely damaged, so the market price will not exceed 100,000. If it is repaired properly, and you spend hundreds of thousands to hire an expert to repair it, it may be worth more than 500,000."

"Isn't that lower than it was more than a decade ago?" Aunt Lu got anxious when she heard this: "At that time, Brother Ma said he wanted 150,000 yuan for this painting. It can't be that the price hasn't increased in more than a decade, right?!"

"Let me make it clear first, the painting was not like this at that time!" Seeing that the conversation was about him, Ma Ye hurriedly explained: "Also, you only said that I didn't receive your painting when I offered 150,000 yuan, but you didn't say that everyone present at the time, except me, shook their heads and said there was no reason to buy this painting. Old Lu, I didn't say that nonsense, did I?" (End of this chapter)