golden ear

Chapter 290 Tang Ying's Descendants
"Are you looking for the best porcelain craftsman?"

Elder Geng asked curiously, "You are behind the major domestic events recently, right? The downfall of Chen Dongsheng and the departure of Ullens are all your masterpieces?"

Wu Tianyuan smiled and said nothing, which made Mr. Geng even more impressed by his growth rate, and said happily: "The country is finally peaceful! Once the two biggest moths die, collectors can finally return to rational collection, and the market has a new order."

"Old man, that's why I'm looking for you. Help me introduce some good craftsmen. You are a master of porcelain, so there are always experts around you, right?"

Mr. Geng nodded, and didn't plan to ask Wu Tianyuan. He thought for a while and said, "Speaking of antique porcelain craftsmen, I would recommend Tang Tianming first, who is the descendant of Tang Ying!"

"Oh? A descendant of the Tang family?"

Mr. Geng laughed and said, "Xiao Tang is almost in his early fifties this year. Needless to say, his ancestors have passed down his skills for several generations. Don't you know Tang Ying's level?"

Wu Tianyuan was excited. The reason why he came to Geng Baochang was to find a top-level craftsman for long-term cooperation in the future to revitalize antique porcelain.

Mr. Geng said meaningfully: "It seems that you are planning to make antique porcelain? This is not a small difficulty!"

"Antique porcelain in a broad sense refers to the standard porcelain of the later dynasty that imitated the previous dynasty. In the past, the antique shop divided the antique porcelain into two categories, and called the antique porcelain of the current dynasty "new imitation of the old"; It is called "old imitation of old". It is generally recognized that "old imitation of old" has a certain collection value, and it is agreed that "new imitation of old" has low collection value."

"The period of the Republic of China was one of the peak periods in the history of Chinese antique porcelain. From the celadon of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the enamel colored porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, all categories and categories are imitated in every period. The common ones are celadon imitating the Three Kingdoms, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, and imitating Sui and Tang dynasties. , the white porcelain of the Five Dynasties, imitating the Ru, Guan, Ge, Ding, and Jun kilns of the Song Dynasty, as well as the porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty and the blue and white, five-color, bucket-colored, famille rose, enamel-colored and single-color glazed wares of the Ming and Qing Dynasties."

"The largest amount of antique porcelain is mainly concentrated in Ming and Qing official kiln porcelain, and the most popular ones are porcelains imitating Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong. Except for a small part of this kind of porcelain written on Kangxi and Yongzheng, most of them are written on Qianlong. The main There are two reasons: firstly, the Qianlong porcelain was made with standard gauges, and the paintings were complicated and lacked the individuality of the artist; secondly, the Qianlong Dynasty was the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, and had a huge social influence."

Mr. Geng has seen too many porcelains in his life. He heard that Wu Tianyuan wanted to make antique porcelains, so he sorted them out for him: "Antique has two meanings. One is pure antique, which is to use existing technology to imitate ancient fine works, just to reproduce traditional craftsmanship. The magic. The second is to make a fake, to cheat money, the two are not the same."

"I want to meet Tang Tianming, you see?"

"No problem, since you're interested, I'll go with you, let's go to Porcelain City, JDZ!"

Wu Tianyuan hurriedly made arrangements. It is not easy for Geng Lao to go out at the age of [-]. He will lead an in-depth visit to the current situation of JDZ to see the true level of porcelain craftsmanship.

"Hi Mr. Tang, I'm Wu Tianyuan."

Old Tang hurried up to meet him, and said with a smile, "You're welcome, Director Wu. I've been to your museum twice, and it's amazing! You know you have friendship with Mr. Geng, and I've wanted to see you for a long time!"

With Mr. Geng's introduction, everyone quickly became familiar with him. Now Wu Tianyuan's identity is known to everyone in the country, and he is a big star everywhere.

"Speaking of antique porcelain, it belongs to JDZ Fanjiajing Village." Lao Tang poured tea for the two of them, and said straight to the point: "It is a small place close to the JDZ train station, and it is also a place where the national antique porcelain "big road goods" gather. They are mainly mid-to-low-grade imitations, and people can find them in BJ's Panjiayuan, Xi'an's Eight Immortals, and Changsha's Qingshuitang."

"In this village with less than 3000 people, there are more than 500 ceramic workshops and shops, with an average of 6 people owning one workshop. These workshops are divided into two parts, one part is the workshop opened by local farmers themselves, and the other part is local farmers. Rent out the houses to workshops opened by foreign bosses.”

"The classification of porcelain stores in Fanjiajing is relatively clear. Stores that imitate various periods and varieties are often independent, such as stores that imitate blue and white flowers in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, shops that imitate enamel colors in Qing Dynasty, and shops that imitate pastels in the Republic of China. These shops and workshops tend to employ skilled workers."

"The workshops also have a clear division of labor in production. Some workshops specialize in producing white tires, some workshops process underglaze colored porcelain such as blue and white, and some workshops process overglaze colored porcelain such as famille rose. This division greatly improves work efficiency and maximizes the It took advantage of the small production space in Fanjiajing."

Wu Tianyuan was a little surprised, he didn't expect that antiques had already formed an industrial chain in JDZ, and so many people depended on it for food.Seeing Wu Tianyuan's surprised look, Lao Tang smiled and said, "In addition to the production and sales outlets, Fanjiajing also has dozens of special shops, that is, "old-fashioned" processing shops, which are an indispensable part of the complete industrial chain of Fanjiajing's antique porcelain. ring."

"Because the antique porcelain that has not been aged can only be sold as craft porcelain forever, and the price will be greatly reduced. These shops are opened by masters with good old-fashioned restoration skills, and often a person opens a shop, compared with their own In addition, some "free people" who do not open shops are also "capable people" that Fan Jiajing can't live without. They are those high-level painters or writers. Which one needs to go to which one, the income is not cheap."

"Once their products are recognized by the market, the workshop owners will close the shops on the street, leave Fanjiajing, and work in their own homes. Because of their fame, they only have to wait for customers to come to buy goods. Firstly, these owners are worried about their own The technology was stolen by the peers, and secondly, they were worried that Fanjiajing's "Daluhuo" brand would affect the price of their products."

"Where does the antique porcelain go?"

Old Tang sighed and said: "Facing the general public in the antique market, middle and low-grade antique porcelain can be easily identified by collectors as genuine and fake, and can be collected as handicrafts. Even those beginners who don't know ceramic knowledge can spend a few hundred yuan. The tuition fee, the loss is not too big."

"The most likely to disrupt the market are those imitated and expensive high-end antique porcelain, which is also the most harmful. JDZ high imitation porcelain is concentrated in Liangshanshu, Luojiawu, Shaujiwu, Lianhuashanzhuang and other communities. These areas gather JDZ The highest level ancient porcelain imitation artist."

"In fact, the imitation of ancient porcelain also follows the law of survival of the fittest. Many people here also started their businesses in Fanjiajing. They basically work at home, employing excellent kiln heads, pyrotechnicians, and painters, and their products are fired in traditional firewood kilns. "While firewood kilns can ensure the "taste" of imitation products, many small workshops are discouraged because of their high cost, large space occupation, and complicated firing procedures."

"Most of the antique workshops in JDZ started firing porcelain in the gas kiln, which is space-saving, cheap, clean and easy to operate, in the early 20s, and only those workshops with sufficient funds to produce high-end antique porcelain would use wood kiln firing. "

"High imitation porcelain is also divided into three or six grades. In addition to the ordinary high imitation porcelain circulating in the market with a price of several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan, there are also very few top high imitation porcelains with amazing prices. They are produced by top-notch technology. There are probably less than 20 such masters in JDZ today, and a small number of them are engaged in imitation burning in Thailand and Japan."

"They are often "packaged kilns". Some businessmen from Japan and the United States often choose one of them and invest millions of yuan every year to package the kiln. It is said that such a top workshop only produces a dozen or even a few high-quality goods a year, and all the failed works are destroyed. When these works enter the market, they often enter large auctions and well-known galleries, pretending to be genuine products, and the price of a single piece is often as high as tens of millions. It ranged from 10 yuan to several million yuan, which greatly disrupted the market order."

(End of this chapter)