Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 556 Real Kung Fu

"Okay!" Seeing the crowd gradually increasing, the old man looked a little proud: "Then I will tell everyone about the subtlety of this Chenghua Tianbai eggshell glaze."

"Chenghua sweet white glaze is the inheritance and development of the sweet white glaze created and fired in the Yongle kiln period."

"Young man, do you know why it's called Tianbai?" The old man began to question Zhou Zhi instead.

Zhou Zhi was not angry at all with a smile: "Because the sweet white glaze is extremely smooth and can illuminate people's shadows, it has a more obvious milky feeling than the egg white glaze of the Privy Kiln in the Yuan Dynasty, giving people a gentle, sweet and clean beauty, so it is also called "Sweet White Glaze". 'Scallion root white' is known as 'white as fat, plain as snow'."

"The reason why it is called Tianbai is because the sucrose icing at that time was similar in color, so it was named Tianbai. Isn't it sir?"

"Uh...it's like this." The old man coughed lightly, and was about to speak again.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Zhi continued: "Sweet white porcelain is a kind of plain glazed porcelain, which belongs to the white porcelain family. It is made of porcelain with low iron content and pure transparent glaze. It has been used as early as the Southern and Northern Dynasties Appear."

"In Yongle, this kind of porcelain reached its peak in terms of glaze color, and in the Chenghua period, white glazed porcelain reached a peak again. Not only was the carcass fine and pure, but most of the carcass was light, and the tire repair was regular. During the Yongle Xuande period, it reached maturity, making white porcelain reach the state of 'reborn'."

"The so-called bodiless is a special porcelain-making process, that is, thin-bodied fine white porcelain. The carcass of this kind of porcelain is so thin that it can hardly be seen. It seems that the carcass has been removed, and the whole porcelain is composed of only the glaze layer. .”

"That's right! Don't you think my bowl is the same?!" The old man said: "Look at my bowl, the lines are soft and round, the body is thin and light, like an eggshell, white glaze is applied inside and outside, the glaze is smooth, and the outer wall is dark under the glaze. The dragon and phoenix are engraved with auspicious patterns, and when you see them in the sunlight, you can see the dragons and phoenixes flying, complemented by auspicious clouds, with a lifelike and vivid expression. Such exquisite craftsmanship can be produced by porcelain factories after the founding of the People's Republic of China?"

The words were full of incomparable self-confidence, and even the people around me who were eating melons nodded, thinking that what the old man said was indeed reasonable.

"Are you finished?" Elder Sun asked.

"Ah, it's over."

"So your opinion is: This bowl has a thin body, white glaze inside and outside, and dark engraved patterns. It is exquisitely crafted. Therefore, it is identified as Chenghua sweet white glaze eggshell porcelain?"

"Yes. Is there something wrong?"

"It's a serious problem. The so-called characteristics you mentioned are the differences between all genuine and imitated eggshell porcelains from Chenghua to the late Ming Dynasty, the third Qing Dynasty, the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, and New China. They all have a common feature, they are all light and thin carcass, white glaze inside and outside, most of them have dark engraved patterns, and the workmanship is exquisite. Then, specific to the genuine products of Chenghua sweet white glaze eggshell porcelain, what are the basic characteristics different from the imitations of other dynasties Woolen cloth?"

"Ah, this..." The old man was stunned for a moment, and suddenly thought of something: "The deposit! There is a deposit under the bowl!"

Old Sun turned the porcelain bowl over, and sure enough, there was a six-character inscription in double circles on the bottom of the porcelain bowl, "Daming Chenghua Nianzhi".

Seeing this, Elder Sun couldn't help laughing: "Is there any more?"

"No... no more."

Elder Sun smiled and said, "Elbow, can you tell me?"

After speaking, he raised his head and said to the onlookers: "Let's talk about it first. Generally, the appraisal teacher will not give any opinions on counterfeit products, so as not to waste everyone's time, but today's matter is a little special. It seems that everyone is asking us to The eyesight of the appraisal teacher who came here is not very trustworthy."

"We know that some people think that the young man next to me is too young and may not be qualified, but what I want to tell you is that his appraisal ability is very good. He has discovered and appraised several very important cultural relics. It is even the kind that can rewrite the history of some crafts in our country, and it is collected by the National Museum and Shudu Museum."

"And he came to Shudu this time because he found clues to an important lost cultural relic from the clues of local historical materials, and finally found it, so he came to Shudu to report."

"It is an honor for Gongmei to invite him to be our appraiser. It should be said that it is an honor for all those waiting for appraisal who are in his line today. There is no doubt about it."

"Next, we will ask him to talk about the identification process of this porcelain, and see if everyone still doubts its professionalism."

After finishing speaking, Elder Sun nodded to Zhou Zhi: "Elbow, tell me."

"Okay, then let me tell you why this piece of porcelain isn't a genuine Chenghua product." Zhou Zhi took over the topic.

"First of all, we should know the characteristics of the sweet white glaze of each era."

"Let's talk about the carcass first. Chenghua Sweet White Glazed Porcelain increases the proportion of kaolin in the refining of the carcass, and after multi-layer filtration and refining, removes impurities, strengthens the carcass toughness, makes the blank thinner, finer and whiter, and at the same time increases The composition of aluminum, so that after the firing temperature rises, most of the sweet whiteware can be in a "semi-bodied" state."

"Sweet white ware has two types of glaze layer, thin and thick. Thin glaze is often applied on thin and bodiless round ware. The glaze surface is cut neatly, the glaze does not flow, and there are two kinds of decorations: plain plain, engraved and printed patterns."

"Thick glaze means that the enamel is thickened. On the glaze surface of thin-bodied wares, the thickness of the glaze water is better than the thickness of the carcass, and it is fatter. It is mostly applied to sharpening wares and plain wares;"

"The dark engraved patterns with smooth lines on a few utensils sometimes require careful inspection or light perspective to see the patterns or inscriptions."

"But we have to remember one thing, that is, no matter how exquisite the craftsmanship of the craftsmen at that time, they were still limited by the tools. The center of gravity and precision of hand-turned pottery dishes cannot be compared with modern machine-made pottery dishes. Therefore, in any case, in In tire making, tire repairing, etc., it is inevitable that there will be flaws such as uneven shape and uneven thickness.”

"As for the rest of the manual work, such as engraving, printing, and decoration, they are their strengths, and their craftsmanship is often difficult for later generations of craftsmen."

"So the old gentleman said that this bowl is exquisitely crafted. In my opinion, he is only half right," Zhou Zhi said with a smile, "What about the other half? Of course it is the tire repairing half."

"As for the part of the dragon and phoenix carving, the traces are too vague. You can see that the dragon and phoenix patterns are not very clear after the light is turned on."

"Why did this happen? Because the carcass of this bowl is not hand-carved, but a mold with a pattern is used to pour porcelain slurry into it and take it out after solidification and molding. This process is only available in modern times. , called 'grouting'."

"There is a saying about the real Chenghua eggshell glaze. Because the carcass is extremely thin, when you hold it, you can even 'hide your finger threads'. Most of them have no decoration, and a few have dark patterns. Most of them are Ssangyong. Shuangfeng, and lotus, rose, camellia, peony, etc."

"However, these decorations all have a common feature, that is, they are extremely fine, round and smooth, which are difficult to see with the naked eye and need to be seen through light perspective."

"As the old man said, this piece of porcelain is neat and exquisite in shape, but it is obvious that although the porcelain body is already very thin, the glaze is even thinner. It is still the basic mode of glaze attaching to the carcass. This magical feature of Huatianbai's 'reborn'."

"The lines of the engraved part lack the three-dimensional sense of the knife, and are slender and rigid, which causes the pattern to be blurred, which is too different from the real product."

Zhou Zhi talked eloquently, his tone was not urgent, full of softness and calmness, but it made everyone hear clearly and confidently.

These are real skills, and others have to be convinced.

(End of this chapter)