Jianbao life

Chapter 696 A Very Unexpected Discovery

The paper mallet bottle in Chu Chen's hand is handsome and straight, with a straight mouth and a plump body. The whole body is decorated with dense and rich layers. The edge of the mouth is painted with scroll patterns, and the lower part is painted with three groups of folded peony patterns. The shoulders are painted with scroll patterns and lotus patterns. decorate.

The paper mallet bottle is raised below the folded shoulders, painted with twirling flower patterns corresponding to the twirling flower patterns on the lower edge of the abdomen. See Yongxuan legacy rhyme.The scrolled grass pattern is also painted on the foot of the circle, which echoes the scrolled grass pattern on the edge of the mouth and shoulders.

In addition, the bottom of this bottle has the six-character inscription "Made in the Kangxi Year of the Qing Dynasty" in blue and white double-circle regular script.

From the perspective of the regular shape of the bottle, the artistry, and the color of the clear flowers, this paper mallet bottle is undoubtedly a fine product of the official kiln, but it is the inscription on the bottom of the bottle that makes it show flaws.

At first glance, the font of the inscription looks dignified, neat, vigorous and powerful, and the distance between characters is relatively large, which is very similar to the authentic inscription.But if you look closely, that's not the case, because if it's a genuine inscription, there should be a pause in each stroke, and the last "year" character is horizontally on the upper part, and the vertical foot in the middle is very long.

But the inscription on the mallet bottle in front of me is obviously not such a feature, so there must be something wrong with the inscription on the bottle. Since the inscription is wrong, it is not difficult to confirm the authenticity of this bottle.

Moreover, Chu Chen can be sure that the style of this paper mallet bottle is definitely not a product of the Kangxi period, and the inscription of Kangxi is obviously Zhang Guanli Dai.

However, although this bottle has a big flaw because of its inscription, judging from its production technology, the level of the maker cannot be lowered. As far as the artist is concerned, Chu Chen feels that it is not inferior to the official kilns of the Qing Dynasty and the Three Dynasties. artisan.Besides Zhang Huoni and his heirs, he had never encountered such a craftsman before.

"Wait! Zhang Huoni? It can't be such a coincidence?" Chu Chen muttered to himself, and quickly looked carefully.

Because the mouth of the mallet bottle is relatively small, if it is really an imitation of Zhang Huoni, his mark will probably not be placed inside, so the most likely pattern is a combination of patterns on the surface.After this search, he really found Zhang Huo Ni's unique secret record.

Chu Chen shook his head secretly and sighed, but he immediately thought of another question, how could he do such a thing with Zhang Huoni's professional knowledge?Is this the early work of Zhang Huo Ni, or the work of Zhang Huo Ni's heirs, or is there something wrong with this paper mallet bottle?

Thinking of this, Chu Chen suddenly got a little excited. Maybe the remaining piece of the treasure map was hidden in this bottle, so he quickly used his ability.However, seeing this, he was both disappointed and surprised.

To my disappointment, there is no treasure map in this bottle. This kind of hopeful and empty result makes people feel a little depressed.What surprised him was that the word "note" was actually written on the inner wall of the bottle, which made him very puzzled, and he couldn't figure out what it meant.

"Notes, is there something important to write down in the notes? Wait! Notes?" Chu Chen suddenly thought of the note that he bought just now, because judging from the handwriting, it does look like a piece of fire clay. No, the note here refers to it?
"Isn't this a bit of a coincidence?" Chu Chen murmured to himself. At this moment, he really wanted to take out the notebook to have a look, but it was obviously not the right time for everyone to see him, so he could only suppress his thoughts. Let's talk about it when we go back.

Because of such an accident, Chu Chen was stunned for a while, and Qiao Qingtai, who was not far away, saw him and asked:
"Xiao Chu, is there something wrong with the thing in your hand?"

Chu Chen came back to his senses and said, "I did find a problem."

"Oh!" Qiao Qingtai put down the things in his hands, walked over quickly, and then picked up the mallet bottle that Chu Chen had just put on the shelf.

"what!"

As soon as he started using the thing, Qiao Qingtai let out a sigh, and then he looked at the bottle carefully. When he saw the bottom of the bottle, he frowned, and said with some doubts: "Look at the maker's painter. , how could you still make such a mistake?"

Of course Chu Chen couldn't tell the truth, he shook his head, then pointed to the fire clay mark on the bottle, and said, "What do you think this is?"

"What?" Qiao Qingtai hurriedly looked at the position Chu Chen pointed to, but after looking for a long time, he didn't see anything strange, so he said suspiciously: "Xiao Chu, I don't see any problem here at all. ah!"

Qiao Qingtai's performance was also normal. After all, if it was so easy to see the problem, Zhang Huoni would not make people change his face.

Chu Chen smiled and said, "Think about it, does the pattern in this place look like two words?"

"Words?" Qiao Qingtai looked over again with a puzzled expression on his face. He frowned and looked at it for a long time before he realized, and said in astonishment, "Is this 'Fire Clay'?"

Having said that, he quickly turned his head and asked Chu Chen, "Could it be that this paper mallet bottle is made of clay?"

"What, something from Zhang Huo Ni?"

Before Chu Chen could answer, the others rushed over when they heard Qiao Qingtai's words, and started to observe carefully...

After Zhu Dafu saw it, he sighed: "Zhang Huoni's level is really high, and he can make it so lifelike. If it wasn't for the inscription, I would really think this thing is the real thing."

"Yes!" Meng Yi nodded in agreement and said, "However, I just can't figure it out. With Zhang Huo Ni's level, it shouldn't be impossible to imitate the inscriptions? If so, why doesn't he write the inscriptions more like it?"

Zhu Dafu laughed when he heard the words: "Xiao Meng, I can see that, you, you still need to read more books on porcelain."

Meng Yixian was slightly taken aback when he heard the words, and immediately asked, "What did I say wrong?"
Zhu Dafu explained with a smile: "Based on the characteristics of the decoration of this mallet bottle and the effect of painting imitation, its blueprint is obviously from the Yongxuan kiln, but there is no such shape in the Yongxuan imperial objects preserved today. Only Yongxuan blue and white water is poured straight up, and I suspect it should be transformed from this."

"But judging from the existing objects, the shape of this kind of paper mallet bottle should be newly created by the Qianlong Dynasty. It was also fired in Jiaqing and Daoguang official kilns, but the blue and white color and decoration are far from the previous dynasty. The one created by Qianlong Things, but they were stamped with Kangxi's year money, do you think this is not the right thing to do?"

"Uh..." Meng Yi was a little speechless when he first heard that this was the case. After a while, he said, "This may not have been created during the Qianlong period. I have seen a Kangxi paper mallet before." The bottle is about the same as this one."

Zhu Dafu shook his head and smiled, "Almost doesn't mean certain. If you don't believe me, you can go and find out if there is any Kangxi mallet bottle with this type of vessel. And look, the blue and white color of this paper mallet bottle The color is light and elegant, and there are traces of rust on the edges of the flowers, which is a typical feature of imitation Yongxuan porcelain fired in the Qianlong period. How could it be a product of the Kangxi official kiln?"

Meng Yixian took a closer look and found that it was indeed what Zhu Dafu said. He scratched his head and said:
"It seems to be true, but how could Zhang Huoni make such a mistake? I really can't figure it out."

"I don't know about that." Both Zhu Dafu and Qiao Qingtai expressed their confusion.

Chu Chen also shook his head. Although he knew that Zhang Huo Ni probably did this on purpose, it was definitely impossible for him to mention this kind of thing to others.

At this moment, Ji Haoliang wanted to cry but said without tears: "Old Meng, is this bottle of mine worthless?"

Meng Yixian said: "After all, Zhang Huoni was an artist in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Although your bottle is crowned and worn, it can be regarded as a high imitation. In addition, Zhang Huoni's level is very high, so it is worth some money. As for whether you will lose money or not?" No, it depends on how much you paid for it."

"I spent three thousand on this bottle, is there any loss?" Ji Haoliang asked anxiously.

Meng Yi thought about it first, and said, "The difference is about the same. Even if you lose money, it won't be much."

Hearing what Meng Yi said first, Ji Haoliang breathed a sigh of relief, and murmured, "It's as good as it's not too bad!"

"I said, Old Ji, Ji Wanyou bought this bottle with you again, right?" Meng Yixian asked again.

Ji Haoliang shook his head: "Of course not. I bought it from a neighbor when I went to visit a friend in the countryside half a year ago. Later, I asked Ji Wanyou to appraise it. He still said that he was not sure. I wanted to keep this bottle. But with the lessons learned from that pen holder, I didn’t agree.”

Meng Yixian laughed and said, "I guess Ji Wanyou must have regarded this bottle as a genuine one. If you had known this, you should have sold it to him."

"The key was that I didn't know that things were imitations."

Ji Haoliang spread his hands and said, "Besides, I'm not the kind of person Ji Wanyou is. Even if I knew something was a fake, I wouldn't harm my own people!"

Everyone nodded, and they wanted to say that although they were all businessmen, they were not unscrupulous profiteers. If they found out that they had cheated, they might sell their things, but at least they would not be as familiar as Ji Wanyou.

After a while, Chu Chen asked, "Mr. Ji, can you transfer this mallet bottle of yours to me?"

Seeing that Chu Chen actually made such a request, everyone at the scene was very surprised except Zhu Dafu.

Ji Haoliang said in surprise: "Xiao Chu, this is not genuine, why do you..."

Zhu Dafu chuckled, and explained to Chu Chen: "Xiaochen also looked at Zhang Huoni's things before, and the loss was not small. Since then, Xiaochen will buy Zhang Huoni's things when he sees them. Come down and study."

The reason Zhu Dafu said was not wrong, but the main reason was that Chu Chen wanted to find the rest of the treasure map.Of course, Chu Chen is still very happy for everyone to misunderstand.

(End of this chapter)