Riding the wind of rebirth

"None of these little things are useful to me. It seems that, as you said, they can only be used to hold grass." Elizabeth said, "The remaining few can't hold much water, and one is filled with red rouge with a strange smell... I have always been curious, what are they used for?"

"These four small bottles are to be displayed in the study for appreciation, usually on an elegant wooden shelf."

"Of these four shorter objects, one is the Taibai Zun and the other is the Pingguo Zun. They are indeed vessels for holding water. The reason they don't hold much water is because the water they hold will be used with oriental ink sticks and inkstones to make temporary ink, so the amount used is not large."

"This red thing is not rouge, but ink, which is used with seals." Zhou Zhi took a little olive oil and moistened the ink in the ink box. Then he took out the seal he always carried with him and pressed it on the ink. He asked Rose to find her exercise book and stamped the seal with the four characters "Zhou Zhi Xing Wen" in seal script on it. "See, this is how it is used. Everyone's seal is different. Hundreds of years ago in our country, this thing could replace fingerprints as an identity mark."

"Oh, this is a convenient and magical little thing." Elizabeth smiled.

"This small thing is also used to hold water, and is called a water washer." Zhou Zhi pointed to the Tongluo washer and said, "Water washer can be divided into large and small ones. The large one is used to wash writing utensils, and the small one is actually used more to adjust the ink color and match the painting."

"In general, these eight small items are all things that ancient scholars used to express their elegance on their desks. They are several decades older than the pair of Benba vases. The most rare thing is to have a complete set, which is quite precious."

"What about this separate piece?"

"This one is called a tea ball. You can think of it as a large teacup. Among porcelains with cowpea red glaze, plates and bowls are very rare, so it is rarer than the other eight pieces."

“What are they worth now?”

"Ms. Elizabeth, is your heart healthy?"

"My heart is quite healthy. Thank you for your concern, George. What's wrong?"

"If these eight items were sold separately, each would normally be valued at around 30,000 to 40,000 US dollars. Since they are a set, there is a premium. I can give you 45,000 US dollars for each, so the total is..."

"Three hundred and sixty thousand US dollars." Mai Xiaomiao gave the answer quickly.

"Oh my God! These little things are worth so much money?" Elizabeth was so surprised that she covered her mouth excitedly, and her voice was choked with sobs.

"As for this small tea ball, given its rarity, I am willing to pay $50,000 for it, a total of $410,000."

"You are so young, how can you have so much money?!" Elizabeth has recovered from her shock: "Are you kidding me?"

"Of course I'm not joking. I can write you a check right now." Zhou Zhi took out his checkbook, thought for a moment and said, "But do you think my checkbook is also fake?"

Elizabeth took the checkbook and looked at it. "How about this? You leave the check and take the four bottles away. Come back tomorrow morning and we'll go to the bank to cash the check. Then I'll give you the remaining five small items. How about that?" "That's a good idea." Zhou Zhi signed the check with a smile, tore it off and handed it to Elizabeth. "But the packaging needs to be changed. I might even have to sacrifice one of your sheets."

"Will Rose's old clothes do all the tricks?" Elizabeth asked. "She has outgrown her childhood clothes."

With four bottles, Zhou Zhi happily returned to Mai Xiaomiao's house. Louise asked, "What did you do that took you so long?"

"We sent Rose and Martin home and had dinner at their house." Mai Xiaomiao introduced her experience at Elizabeth's house and then held out a candle box: "Grandma Elizabeth is a perfumer. This is a gift from her to us. Mom, you can choose half."

"Let's take a look at the bottle first." McGeve felt that his daughter was a little confused: "What should a bottle worth $400,000 look like?"

"In fact, the four tall bottles are more expensive than the four short bottles, but I'm too lazy to explain it to Ms. Elizabeth." Zhou Zhi gave a brief introduction: "Among the four tall bottles, the Panchi bottle has the highest craftsmanship requirements, followed by the Chrysanthemum Petal Bottle, then the Radish Bottle, and the Willow Leaf Bottle. Therefore, there should be differences in the valuation of the four bottles."

Everyone can see that the willow leaf vase is a smooth vessel with smooth and graceful lines. The radish vase is similar to the willow leaf vase, but the shoulders are steeper and the shape is slightly wider. The key point is that there are two more string patterns at the junction of the neck and the shoulder, and the craftsmanship is more complicated.

The chrysanthemum-petal vase is similar to the radish vase, but has a longer neck and a much shorter body. There is an extra circle of carvings on the bottom that looks like chrysanthemum petals or an elongated lotus seat. From a craftsmanship point of view, it is no longer possible to complete it with a turntable alone. It requires the addition of geometric knowledge and carving techniques, and the craftsmanship has been taken to a higher level.

The most complicated one is the Panchi bottle. The shape of the Panchi bottle can be any of the first three types. But no matter which type is used, there is an additional Panchi sculpture at the shoulder and neck, with its feet grasping the shoulders of the bottle and its body and tail coiled around the neck of the bottle, showing the highest craftsmanship among the eight cowpea red codes.

This craftsmanship is not only reflected in the addition of a carving. In order to highlight the contrast, the bottle body is sprayed with kidney bean red glaze, while the Panchi is applied with green glaze or pine green glaze. The Panchi bottle fired in this way will appear as a small green Panchi wrapped around the red bottle, which looks very prominent and cute.

This method is indeed beautiful, but it also tests the glazing and firing skills, so the Panchi bottle is the most valuable among the eight codes.

On the other hand, the Taibai Zun, Tongluo Washbasin, Yindi Box and Apple Zun, which are among the four short ones, are worth less than the cheapest willow-leaf vase among the four tall ones. However, Zhouzhi has a large number of them, so she only needs to report the average price to Elizabeth.

Louise looked at the four small bottles on the table. The tallest willow-leaf bottle was only about 20 centimeters, and the shortest was only 15 or 16 centimeters. They were so small that a lady could hold them in one hand. The colors were not pure enough, and some of them had flesh-white and grass-green spots on the bottom. She found it hard to imagine that they were so valuable. "No wonder Ms. Elizabeth received them in the box. If I had seen them, I would have only regarded them as unqualified defective products. Who would have thought that they were actually palace supplies on the desk of an oriental emperor hundreds of years ago?"

"Then you can't go back to the city tonight." McGeoff said, "My mother and I have to go back to New York, otherwise we won't be able to make it to work tomorrow. Remember to turn off the water and electricity and close the door when you leave tomorrow morning."

Louise stood up and picked up her bag: "And remember to say goodbye to Crawford."

After sending Louise and McGee away, Zhou Zhi put his arm around Mai Xiaomiao's waist and said, "It seems that I have passed the test of your parents, right? Otherwise, they wouldn't be so confident in me..."

"Pah!" Mai Xiaomiao blushed, twisted Zhou Zhi's evil hand away and ran into the house. (End of this chapter)