Riding the wind of rebirth

The crude wooden box made Weng Wange frown. But when Zhou Zhi opened the box and presented the contents in front of him, he couldn't help but be surprised: "Eight codes?"

"I know the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a lot of cowpea red porcelain. You don't want these, right?" Zhou Zhi smiled like a fox that stole a chicken.

"The Metropolitan Museum of Art does have a lot of cowpea red porcelain, but there are not even two sets to complete the set." Wang Shaofang and Guan Shuning came over immediately and asked, "Are there any more pieces of the Eight-Material variety scattered among the people in New York?"

"It's an international metropolis, so it's normal for some treasures to be found among the people." Zhou Zhi was very proud: "The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the place with the highest concentration of cowpea red in the world, right? They can't even get a few sets of this?"

Weng Yijun took a thick illustrated magazine from the bookshelf. On the cover of the magazine was written "Peach Blossom Glaze Porcelain from the Metropolitan Museum of Art". He opened it and pointed to the catalogue: "Look, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has the largest collection of cowpea red in the world. The records are all here."

"There are nine chrysanthemum-petal vases, two of which were severely damaged, so the necks were cut off by the porcelain workers, and one was ground and inlaid with silver ornaments. There are only six complete pieces."

"There are quite a lot of willow leaf vases, thirteen in total, one of which has a cut neck."

"There are eighteen ink pad boxes, and they are basically intact."

"There are seven gong wash basins, one of which has a large crack and one has cracks on the glaze. Only six are intact."

"The Taibai vases are the most numerous, with 22 pieces. Five of them were cut off and turned into water jugs."

"The radish bottle is very rare, there are two of them in total. Fortunately, both are intact."

"The rarest one is the radish vase?" Guan Shuning had already taken the apple vase in his hands and began to carefully identify it: "The cowpea-red apple vase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is not from the Kangxi period at all, but a replica from the 19th century."

The Apple Zun has a concave rim, a ring foot, and a bulging belly. It is called the Apple Zun because it looks like an apple. It is one of the classic vessels during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty and is an innovative stationery item of the Kangxi Kiln. Because of its small appearance and attractive glaze color, it has the reputation of "smooth and transparent Jisha glaze, and the painting started in Zhuming".

Later generations generally regarded it as an imperial item on Emperor Kangxi's desk, and it was hard to find among the common people. The currently known handed down items were all rewards or left from the palace.

However, in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, there were a large number of imitations, but neither the shape nor the color could compare with the Kangxi original.

Zhou Zhi only knew that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had a large collection of cowpea red porcelain, and naturally thought that they must be authentic. However, he did not know that the cowpea red apple vase in the museum's collection was actually a replica of the late Qing Dynasty. He could not help but wonder, "How could such a prestigious museum not have a cowpea red apple vase from this dynasty?"

Guan Shuning couldn't help but roll his eyes at him: "Don't even mention this dynasty, even the ones from the three dynasties of the Qing Dynasty are hard to find. This thing is not cheap."

“Hehehe…” Zhou Zhi smiled slyly, “I was obsessed with kiln-changed glaze for a while, and by chance I received a kiln-changed glaze apple vase from the Qianlong period. It’s half red and half green, and the red is very bright. It looks almost like a real apple.”

"With this one now, I have two Apple statues."

"These are things from our dynasty." Guan Shuning was too lazy to listen to Zhou Zhi's boasting. He also thought the light in the room was not strong enough, so he ran to the door and carefully inspected them in the sunlight. He came back and asked, "How did you find this set of things?"

"This story begins with two kids bringing a pair of Benba bottles to our stall to exchange for lunch boxes..." Zhou Zhi said with a smile. The camera crew was also attracted, and the host found this a good story and nodded secretly.

"In fact, in addition to the eight large sizes, there is one more." After finishing the story, Zhou Zhi removed the layer of foam that had just placed the four short items in the box, and everyone discovered that there was actually a small bowl underneath.

"More? This is... our dynasty's small bowl?" Guan Shuning almost fainted: "Elbow's luck is incredible!"

"I prefer to call it 'tea ball'. The Manchus retained the nomadic habit of drinking tea, and the containers they used were much larger than those of the Han people. Although it is a tea set, it is often mistaken for a small bowl."

"Whether it's a tea ball or a bowl, things from the Kangxi period are extremely precious." Guan Shuning looked eagerly at Weng Wange holding the small bowl to admire it, but was too embarrassed to ask the old man to let him see it first, so he had to introduce it first: "The Metropolitan Museum of Art has only one Kangxi cowpea red bowl, and the bottom is inscribed with the mark of the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. This is already very impressive."

"I remember there is another one from this dynasty, it is a large bowl, and it is the only one." Zhou Zhi searched his memory.

"Yes, the one that was formerly in the Yanxun Palace." Guan Shuning obviously had a deep knowledge of cowpea red porcelain, at least better than Zhou Zhi in this respect: "Except for that one, the remaining bowls have two styles, small lip and large lip, but the bottom of all of them are signed 'Made in the Xuande Period of the Ming Dynasty'."

"That kind of thing doesn't make much sense." Zhou Zhi curled his lips.

"Why?" Weng Yijun's knowledge of porcelain was not as good as Guan Shuning and Zhou Zhi's, and he didn't know the ins and outs of it.

"Because the imperial kilns also have their own rules for imitating the artifacts of the previous dynasty. Only when the imitation reaches a certain level will the inscription be signed." Zhou Zhi explained to everyone: "And the cowpea red itself was a variety that was not created until the Kangxi Dynasty. It did not exist in the Xuande Dynasty at all. Therefore, the cowpea red fired in the official kilns could not be inscribed with 'Made in the Xuande Period of the Ming Dynasty', because that would make it look old by imitating something that only existed in the new dynasty as the previous dynasty, which is as ridiculous as carving a Mickey Mouse out of obsidian and insisting that it is an Indian mascot."

"Hahahaha..." This explanation was so easy to understand and funny that everyone burst into laughter.

Weng Yijun also understood: "If the official kiln does this, it will become a laughing stock, so only the folk kilns will do this."

"Yes." Guan Shuning nodded. "So the mark on the cowpea red can only be from a dynasty after Kangxi that imitated Kangxi's inscription. The inscriptions like 'Made in the Xuande Period of the Ming Dynasty' can only be fabricated by folk kilns whose kiln workers were not knowledgeable enough. Unfortunately, except for one official kiln with the mark of this dynasty, the other two in the Metropolitan Museum are from folk kilns."

"Is this the first time I've seen a tea ball like this?" Wang Shaofang was also from the Oriental Art Department of the Metropolitan Museum. Although his main focus was not on porcelain, he was not a complete novice: "Teaware should be the most sophisticated among all tableware, right?"

"Indeed." Weng Wange finally handed the tea ball to the younger generation to admire: "This should be the third known surviving cowpea red tableware of the Kangxi dynasty, and it is also the finest one. How much did you spend to buy these things?"

"A total of 410,000 US dollars." Zhou Zhi said.

"The price is fair." Weng Wange nodded.

"What's fair?" Wang Shaofang almost wanted to cry. "Although the price is fair, I'm afraid that such a trading opportunity cannot be bought with 800,000 US dollars!" (End of this chapter)