golden ear

Chapter 300 General Agent in the Middle East

"Dear Wu, what treasure brought you all the way to the Middle East?"

Wu Tianyuan looked at Tajir who was very enthusiastic, and said with a smile: "Can't I come and see your good friend?"

"Hahaha, okay, please come in!" The two came to the garden and chatted while drinking tea.

"I just received an invitation letter for Bonhams' special event on mountain dwellings, and Tianyuan Hall, is it your newly created hall name?"

"That's right. I'm free to get some antique porcelain to play with. The effect is not bad. This time I'm also looking for raw materials for Yuan blue and white. Su Ma Li Qing has some clues."

Tajir's eyes lit up, and he asked with great interest: "Oh? It seems sure that you, a master treasure hunter, can be dispatched?"

Wu Tianyuan smiled, did not answer, and asked instead: "I am here today to ask for your help. The clue is in the mountainous area of ​​northern Iraq. If you really find a mineral deposit, are you capable of obtaining the mining right?"

"No problem, I, Tagil, still have some face!" He said to himself, "It's not a gold mine, let me handle it."

"That's good. I won't let you do it for nothing. When Yuan Qinghua is imitated, you will be counted. All the sales in the Middle East will be handed over to you!"

Tajir laughed loudly, a little disapprovingly, if Wu Tianyuan hadn't said this, he would have ridiculed it if it were someone else!Just kidding, Yuan Qinghua has been imitated by countless people for hundreds of years, and none of them succeeded.Su Ma Liqing is the key, but there are still many recipes lost, otherwise the local tyrants in the Middle East would not collect hundreds of millions of yuan blue and white flowers.

Wu Tianyuan didn't explain, and it's nonsense to say anything without results. As long as the Sumali Green Mine can be mined, Yuan Qinghua will solve the biggest problem.

He didn't stay long, and entered the mountains of northern Iraq through Tajir's relationship, and finally found the hidden target two days later.

Sumaliqing is a low-manganese and high-iron cobalt material, cobalt oxide CoO, the color is dark blue, and it is the most stable coloring agent.Whether it is refired or under any glaze, it has a stable blue color. 0.25% cobalt oxide presents a brilliant blue color in the glaze.

Cobalt ore is abundant in northern Oman, Iraq, and the use of cobalt ore in local pottery has been widespread in the Abbasi era.

When the caliphs of the Abbasi era got jade-like porcelain from China, they had to travel for a year and a half to bring them back from China because these porcelains were precious and fragile. This prompted the caliphs to build their own kiln to fire imitation Chinese porcelain.

The porcelain tablets unearthed in Samara prove that the first pottery fired here was a complete imitation of the white porcelain of Xing kiln in China. Due to the lack of important kaolin, the imitation ceramics could not be essentially high-temperature porcelain.

Samara is rich in cobalt ore, and it is also a porcelain-making center for mass production of underglaze blue-and-white ceramics. At the same time, it is very close to Baghdad, the final destination and distribution center of blue-and-white porcelain trade in China since the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

It is not known exactly when the cobalt blue material was brought to China by merchants, but from the special hair color of early Chinese blue and white porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Hongwu, Yongle, Xuande, etc., combined with literature and modern chemical analysis, it can be clearly proved that Su Mali Qing That is the cobalt blue material from Samara, Iraq.

After Wu Tianyuan discovered the ore vein, he wrote down the coordinates, found Tajir, and asked him to clear up the relationship and deal with the mining permit issue.After all, it is the royal family of the Middle East, so this little thing is easy.In less than a Sunday, Yuan Mining officially moved in and started small-scale mining.

"Boss, did you really find Su Maliqing?"

Old Tang looked at the cobalt material in his hand in disbelief, and quickly began to use the machine to test the composition to see if it matched the glaze color and hair color of Yuan blue and white after firing.

There are several characteristics of Yuan blue and white. Rust spots are the most typical feature of Sumali green materials. The place where the green materials accumulate, such as starting and falling, two intersections, pen pauses, tire joints, etc., has the highest probability of rust spots. place.

The reason for the formation of rust spots stems from the chemical composition of high iron and low manganese in Sumali green material.Through the measurement of scientific instruments at the black spots on the blue and white porcelain pieces, the iron content in the black spots is several times higher than that in the blue and white materials.

There is also smearing, which is a visual phenomenon that is blurred and unclear at the boundary between the blue and white color material area and the non-color material area, as if ink is splashed on rice paper and diffuses outward from the naked eye. .

The reason for the blooming is that the viscosity of the blue and white pigment and glaze decreases and the fluidity increases at high temperature, which causes the blue and white pigment to diffuse from the colored area to the non-colored area, forming a natural blooming effect.

The blue and white enamel of the Yuan Dynasty adopts calcium-alkali glaze, and the fluxing effect of CaO reduces the viscosity of the glaze at high temperature, makes the glaze easier to disperse, and increases the smudge effect of the pigment.

"Look, boss, when you observe the color of Yuan blue and white under a high-power microscope, you will find a phenomenon that dot-shaped black spots often condense in the pigment area, especially on a long line of stripes, it will appear like a string Pearly dark punctate spots, a phenomenon that has been described by some as beading."

"It has been proved by modern scientific and technological means that the typical tin photoreaction in Yuan blue and white cobalt material is due to the crystallization of ferromanganese oxides. The crystalline plaques of iron oxide will form tin light under the refraction of light."

Wu Tianyuan has a lot of Yuan blue and white flowers in his hand, so that Old Tang can study them carefully, and even scrape off a part of the glaze color to analyze the composition with the most advanced equipment, which is very extravagant.

"Here are some secret recipes in my hand. You can combine the handicrafts of your family to see if you can successfully imitate them? Let's discuss in detail when the finished product comes out."

Now the kiln factory has money and some people have raw materials. Ming and Qing antique porcelain is Laotang's housekeeping skill. The production line is very mature, and at least [-] pieces of high-quality goods can be produced every month.The newly-launched Longquan celadon and Jianyao are in the process of perfecting their technology, with a maximum of [-] pieces this month, but with new equipment and talents in place, they can reach almost [-] pieces per month.

Now that he has time to start researching Yuan blue and white, this quantity does not need to be large, just like the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, one piece is the top antique porcelain.After he needs to experiment by himself, he can only find the craftsman with the highest level to complete it.

"Yuan blue and white also has glaze color, which requires top-level painters to complete." Geng Lao smiled and said, "Ru Guan Ge Jun must have monochrome glaze into the kiln. What conquers people's hearts is the elegant shape and the texture of jade. Points can only be perceived by old Tang and the others with their hands, and there is no possibility of industrialization."

"I know this, and it can't be industrialized." Wu Tianyuan nodded in agreement, "Yuan Qinghua and the five famous kilns must be few but refined! Even if there is only one finished product a month, it is enough to be the representative of the highest level of Tianyuantang!"

"When the time comes to auction, let collectors all over the world know our level of antiques. Tianyuan Hall will definitely become the number one hall of antiques in the future!"

Wu Tianyuan has a plan. The antique porcelain can be mass-produced in Ming and Qing Dynasties and celadon kilns. According to the quality, they will be sold to the international market in three grades: high, medium and low.Blue and white are mainly European, and nobles like luxurious and delicate patterns.Celadon and Jianyao Dingyao all entered the Japanese market, and they could appreciate these monochromatic glazes aesthetically.

As for Yuan blue and white, once it is successful, it will be mainly sold to local tyrants in the Middle East through Tagil, and the highest quality will be auctioned and become one of the signatures of Tianyuantang.

Not to mention the three famous kilns, Brother Ruguan is an absolute heavy weapon, even if it is an antique, it is also a star product.There are no more than one hundred genuine products in the world, and it is a rare fate to own one piece of antique porcelain.

(End of this chapter)