golden ear

Chapter 150

"Are you Tom Morrison?"

Wu Tianyuan frowned and looked at the drunk man in front of him. He was disheveled and had lipstick marks on his neck. It was obvious that he had just come back happily.

"Who are you? Chinese?"

Tom was drunk and looked at the Chinese who suddenly appeared at the door of the house, and said with disdain: "If you have nothing to do, get out, I want to sleep!"

Wu Tianyuan shook his head, feeling sorry for the descendants of the all-powerful textile tycoon back then who are so unbearable!It's no wonder that Fangshanju fell apart.

He grabbed Tom by the collar and said viciously: "You prodigal son, I don't have time to talk nonsense to you! I heard you have Shanju porcelain for sale?"

Shocked, Tom looked at the Chinese in front of him with some fear, and was more than half awake from the wine. He nodded quickly, and the two entered the room together.

The well-known Fangshan Residence in the collection circle is located in Wiltshire, southwest England, adjacent to the famous Fangshan Abbey, with a history of more than 150 years.It was originally a rural private residence of James Morrison, the richest man in Britain in the 19th century, and the Morrison family has always used it as a display place for art collections.

In the collection of Fangshanju, a considerable part and the most important are Chinese artworks, including various porcelain, enamelware, sculptures, etc. This is also an important reason why Fangshanju can have such a name full of Chinese artistic conception and poetry. .

Now Fangshanju has been donated by the Morrison family and has become a museum of the British government, and its treasures have been gradually sold by descendants after five generations.

In 1965, 1971 and 2004, the Morrison family successively entrusted Cascade Company of the United Kingdom to conduct three special auctions, each of which caused a huge sensation in the Chinese art market all over the world.

At that time, it was impossible for Europeans to have a deep understanding of Chinese artworks, because their concept of China was very fresh and mysterious 150 years ago.But those porcelains and artworks from China are really beautiful.

It can be seen that James attached great importance to Chinese artworks back then. He especially liked gorgeous and exquisite Chinese porcelain and cloisonné enamel, so he specially hired Jones, an internationally renowned architect at that time, to build a Chinese room in Fangshanju for display. Chinese art.

After James' death in 1857, Alfred inherited £75 worth of shares and a mountain house from his father.Alfred used his huge inheritance to collect a number of extremely considerable art treasures, and he was particularly interested in Chinese art.

Among its public collections, the most famous ones are the three collections auctioned by Christie's in November 2010, namely, a pair of cloisonné enamel double-crane incense burners made by Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, and the yellow-ground famille rose color Fushouwannian of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty. A pair of cloud-mouth vases and Qing Daoguang yellow-ground famille rose flower Wufu bowls.In particular, the cloisonné enamel double-crane incense burner became the item with the highest estimate in the Jiashide autumn auction in Hong Kong, and was finally sold at a sky-high price of 11 million Hong Kong dollars.

In 1971, Jiashide in London auctioned a long-necked gourd bottle with a light yellow ground and foreign color icing on the cake in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. It was finally sold at a price of 2.5266 million Hong Kong dollars. The world auction record for Chinese handicrafts and porcelain created in 2005, becoming the most expensive porcelain in the world.

Wu Tianyuan remembers that this record surprised many people in the industry. This kind of colored porcelain was not optimistic in the past.One is that there is no theme pattern, and the flower theme is too common; the other is the alum red model with the bottom. In terms of style recognition, the blue material square chapter is the first, the blue and white model is second, and the alum red model is only the third; the third is the bottle shape Ordinary, very vulgar.

But things are like this in the world, and no one would have expected that such a stylized Qianlong official kiln would create such a miracle, and the collection gave Alfred endless fun.He won't know that after a hundred years, the Chinese vases he collects are more expensive than the house left by his father!

"You want to buy my family's collection?"

Tom asked this domineering Chinese to sit down, and took a good look at it. His eyes lit up when he saw Vacheron Constantin worth millions in his hand.

"That depends on what you have in hand?"

Wu Tianyuan crossed his legs and acted more like a rich man when dealing with this kind of prodigal son. He said disdainfully: "I just opened a museum. I heard that you have some porcelain in your family. Come and visit."

Tom was excited. As the sixth-generation family heir, not only did he not have any huge inheritance, but he also owed a lot of bills because his father failed in business. Later, he also relied on auctioning antiques to get through the difficulties.

The rest of the money was almost tossed by myself, and just after the news was announced that the last collection was going to be sold, a big local tyrant came to the door?It's still Chinese, so it can be sold at a high price.

"Golden Lion Made of Hetian Jade and Clay Made by Emperor Qianlong!"

"Qianlong topaz dragon and phoenix jade pendant!"

"A pair of Jiaqing carmine consecration bowls!"

"Daoguang Peacock Blue Double Happiness Amphora!"

"Daoguang Rouge Red Dark Eight Immortals Three-legged Incense Burner!"

"Xuande cloisonne covered jar!"

"Yongzheng bird pattern holding the moon bottle!"

Wu Tianyuan glanced at the collection and nodded. They are all old collections of the Old Summer Palace. It seems that the textile magnate also collected spoils!

"How? Five million pounds!"

Wu Tianyuan glared at the prodigal son, and said with disdain: "500 million? Have you lost your mind by drinking alcohol? Just these rubbish things?"

Tom quickly explained: "Of course it's not just these! Although I don't understand, I also know that these are not worth 500 million, but do you think this is worth it?"

After speaking, he took out another set of collections from the cabinet, Wu Tianyuan's eyes lit up, and he quickly began to study it.

"We are copperplate paintings of the Forty Scenes of the Old Summer Palace!"

In its heyday, Yuanmingyuan had more than 100 landscape groups such as Changchun Garden, Qichun Garden, and Yuanmingyuan. Forty Scenery refers to 40 landscape groups with unique patterns in the garden, and each scene is one of the gardens or garden buildings. group.

In the first month of the first year of Qianlong, Leng Mei, a painter of Ruyi Museum in Hongli, based on the 36 scenes of the Summer Resort drawn by the Kangxi Dynasty, created a sketch for each "palace and place" in the Old Summer Palace.

Soon thereafter, Tang Dai and Shen Yuan were ordered to paint again.Shen Yuan painted houses, while Tang Dai painted earth, mountains, trees and rocks.Later, Zhou Kun and others also participated in the drawing of this set of "Old Summer Palace Booklet".

At first, this set of pictures only painted 33 scenes. In the sixth year of Qianlong, three pictures were added, including Fanghu Shengjing, Pengdao Yaotai and Ciyun Puhu. In September of the ninth year of Qianlong, Hongci Yonghu, Huifang Academy, and Dongtian Deep were added Heyuediyunju 3 pictures, which eventually became "Forty Scenes".

However, the forty scenes that best represent the first royal garden at that time suffered great humiliation. When the Old Summer Palace was robbed in 1860, this set of precious colored paintings was looted by the invaders and grandly dedicated to the French Emperor Napoleon III and stored in the Fontainebleau Museum.

In this way, the Old Summer Palace and its images were all taken away by the Western invaders. As a result, for a long time, the image of the Old Summer Palace was completely blank in the minds of Chinese people.People can only "think of pavilions from rubble, lakes and marshes from awning reeds, and flowers and trees from Jingzhen".

"Are you engraved copper engravings based on the Forty Scenes?"

"That's right. At that time, Emperor Qianlong ordered the craftsmen of the palace building office to use high-quality red copper to carve forty sceneries, which have been stored in the Qinzheng Qinxian Hall, and were later snatched here by the British."

(End of this chapter)