Jianbao life

Chapter 491 Blank Period

The most important thing, and what surprised Chu Chen the most, was that this plum vase didn't have any signature!

You know, no matter in terms of the shape of the plum vase, the artistry, and the fetal bone, Chu Chen can be sure that it should be a piece of official kiln porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.However, a blue-and-white plum vase fired by the official kiln of the Ming Dynasty, and it was made of Sumaliqing porcelain, unexpectedly had no signature, which was very rare in the Ming Dynasty.

This kind of situation can only happen in the period in Chu Chen's memory, and this period is exactly the "blank period" that basically everyone in the ceramic industry knows something about.

After Xuande, the Ming Dynasty experienced a series of political changes. During this period, the society was turbulent, foreign aggression and internal strife followed, and the economy was depressed.The so-called blank period is the three dynasties of Zhengtong, Jingtai and Tianshun, which lasted nearly 30 years.

In this case, the porcelain industry in Porcelain City was greatly affected, and the firing of official kiln porcelain basically stopped.So far, among the handed down and unearthed wares, Chu Chen has not seen the handed down porcelain that can clearly determine the age and write the date. Even so, it cannot be said that there is absolutely no such thing.

It is precisely because of this that there is no official kiln porcelain handed down from generation to generation, and all the porcelain seen are produced by private kilns, so the academic circles are called "blank period" and "three black generations".

And it is precisely because the porcelains of the three dynasties that are now discovered were all produced in private kilns, many experts believe that there were no official kilns fired at that time.

However, Chu Chen had also consulted relevant information before, and learned from these documents that during this period, no matter whether the official kilns or the private kilns, although there were records of burning bans and reductions, they were still firing.

It’s just that the kiln porcelain at that time did not write the date of year due to the turmoil of the current situation. The orthodox porcelain of China is particularly confusing.

The blue and white plum vase with dragon and phoenix patterns in front of me has a very clear feature of the blank period, and if Chu Chen is not mistaken, judging from its craftsmanship, it is very similar to porcelain from the Zhengtong period.

Thinking of this, Chu Chen's spirit was lifted, and he quickly took out a magnifying glass from his pocket to observe carefully.

The carcass of this bottle is relatively thick, the fetal quality is fine and white and moist, the glaze color is white and blue, bright and transparent, and the degree of vitrification is high. White glaze is applied to the bottom of the foot, and sauce glaze is applied to the mouth. The blue and white hair color is rich and colorful, with rust spots. But compared with the hair color of Su Maliqing in Xuande or Chenghua period, it still looks a bit inferior.

In addition, the shape of this vessel seems to have the style of the Xuande period, but the bottom foot is not carefully repaired. You can see flint red spots and some kiln slag sticking to the bottom. This should also be due to the social turmoil at that time. , resulting in a decrease in the level of artisans.

The painting method of this bottle adopts the one-stroke stippling technique in the early Ming Dynasty. The brushwork is extensive, especially the center-forward brushwork, which has very distinctive characteristics of the times.The picture is simple, the layout is sparse and the space is large.And judging from the dragon and phoenix patterns on the plum bottle, although the painting techniques are not as good as those in the Xuande period, they are undoubtedly much more delicate and exquisite than the rough ones in the Jingtai period.

Finally, Chu Chen carefully observed some other features, and felt that this blue and white plum vase should be a piece of official kiln porcelain in the blank period, and it is also a very rare fine piece fired during the Zhengtong period.It's just that he hadn't seen official kiln porcelain from the Zhengtong period before, so he wasn't [-]% sure about it, so he used his ability again.

"Xiao Chen, is this bottle real or fake?" Mi Jiaying asked impatiently when she saw Chu Chen put the plum bottle back to its original position.

"It is indeed a genuine product!" Chu Chen nodded with certainty.

"Really?" Tao Jiahui was surprised at first, and then asked with some doubts: "Then what year is it? I heard from others that most of the blue and white porcelain like this should be dated? Is it possible that this is the case?" Is it Yuan Qinghua?"

"Do you think if this is Yuan blue and white, would your friend give it to you?" Mi Jiaying said with a snort.

"That's right!" Tao Jiahui said with a chuckle.

Chu Chen smiled and said: "Generally speaking, except for the blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty, most of the blue and white porcelains are indeed recognizable. However, during the three periods from the orthodox to the Tianshun period of the Ming Dynasty, due to social turmoil, the burning of official kilns The production has been greatly affected, and many porcelains from these 30 years have no inscriptions."

"Xiaochen, do you mean that this bottle was produced at that time?" Tao Jiahui asked suddenly.

"Yes, I think it was fired during the Zhengtong period."

Chu Chen nodded, and then asked, "Sister Jiaying, do you have any plans to sell this plum vase?"

"If we can sell it, of course we will!" Tao Jiahui smiled wryly, "Look at our house now, what reason can we not sell?"

"It's true that you said such disappointing words!"

Mi Jiaying complained, and then said to Chu Chen: "Xiao Chen, I can sell you something, but there is one thing, you can't buy it at too high a price, otherwise we won't accept it!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Tao Jiahui nodded again and again, "Xiaochen, if you really recognize me as brother-in-law, then give me a reasonable price."

Seeing what the two said, Chu Chen thought for a while, and then said, "Then it's 300 million!"

"How many?"

"300?"

Hearing the price given by Chu Chen, Tao Jiahui's family all showed shocked expressions. They never thought that this bottle could be worth so much money. The most important thing is that this bottle was paid off in debt. This made them think about it. I feel incredible.

After a while, Mi Jiaying came back to his senses and said, "Xiao Chen, don't lie to me. Although I don't know much about antiques, I can still ask for the price."

Chu Chen smiled bitterly and said, "Sister Jiaying, how could I lie to you?"

"That won't be so expensive!" Mi Jiaying said with a frown.

Chu Chen explained: "Did you forget what I said before? Because of the special social environment at that time, there were very few utensils fired in official kilns at that time, let alone the high-quality goods among them, and this plum vase is a This is a high-quality blue-and-white porcelain made at that time. So although this plum bottle is not better than Xuande or Chenghua blue-and-white porcelain in terms of craftsmanship, rare things are more expensive, and 300 million is definitely not expensive."

After hearing Chu Chen's explanation, the whole family accepted it somewhat, but Mi Jiaying thought of another thing and said, "Xiao Chen, are you asking the market price now?"

Chu Chen chuckled, as a tacit consent.

Mi Jiaying shook her head and said, "This is your fault. Don't think that I don't understand anything. The market price of antiques is only a reference value. How can ordinary transactions be based on this price?"

Chu Chen chuckled and said, "Sister Jiaying, listen to me, if something like this goes to the auction, it must be worth more. Speaking of which, I still made money. And according to the current market for antiques, In a few years, this plum vase may be worth 600 million yuan, and I'm afraid you will regret it by then!"

"You boy, how can the money in the future be compared with the present? No matter what, 300 million is definitely not enough!" Mi Jiaying scolded.

"After all, now is a special period, and if the master knows that I still underestimate your price, then he must beat me up. You don't want my ass to bloom, do you?"

Chu Chen said pitifully, everyone was overjoyed by that appearance.

"Xiaochen, let me ask a question, is the value of all antiques as high as this bottle?" Tao Jiahui asked.

Chu Chen replied: "The prices of antiques in the past two years are indeed much higher than those in previous years, but if you want to say that they must be high, that's not necessarily true. The key is to judge by the quality of things."

Tao Jiahui nodded and said: "Well, I still have two antiques at home, please help me estimate the value, as for the price of this bottle, we will talk about it later, do you think it will work?"

When Mi Jiaying heard this, she had some disagreements: "Jiahui, those two items were left to you by your father, so don't sell them!"

"If you don't sell them, why keep them? And when I saw them, I remembered the past, so let's sell them!" After finishing speaking, he walked towards the inner room.

After listening to the conversation between the couple, Chu Chen and Wu Ke were a little puzzled, but after all, this matter is someone else's family matter. Although they were a little curious, they didn't ask.

But then, Mi Jiaying told the reason of the matter.

It turned out that Tao Jiahui's father was an alcoholic and had a bad temper. He would beat and scold the mother and son when he was drunk. Tao Jiahui lived in this shadow for ten years.

Once, Tao Jiahui's father was drunk again, but this time he didn't know why he went crazy, and he beat Tao Jiahui until his arm was broken. Now Tao Jiahui's mother couldn't take it anymore. Decided to divorce, although Tao Jiahui's father refused, but under the threat of calling the police, he could only agree.

Sometimes, people are like this. They don’t know how to cherish until they lose it. It’s the same for Tao Jiahui’s father. He didn’t find out that the mother and son are good until they got divorced, but it’s too late to regret it now, even if he really wants to change his bad Unfortunately, Tao Jiahui's mother did not agree to remarry.

He had made countless vows before, but in the end he still went his own way, like talking too much when wolves came, and people would not believe the same truth when wolves really came. In the end, he had no choice but to find someone else Formed a new family.

The year before last, Tao Jiahui's father was terminally ill, and before he died, he left two antiques for Tao Jiahui. He didn't want them at first, but seeing his father's begging eyes, he finally couldn't bear to refuse, so he had to accept them.

But because of the shadow of his childhood, Tao Jiahui only took a look at these two things, and they have been shelved by him. If it weren't for this plum vase, he would never have thought of it.

At first, Chu Chen and Wu Ke were still wondering, since the funding problem has been solved, how could Tao Jiahui still think of selling the relics left by his father? After hearing what Mi Jiaying said, they realized that this was the case thing.

(End of this chapter)