"Haha, Uncle Feng, why do you have to be so humble? I really admire you, boy!" Zhang Junping said with a casual smile.
Old Fengtou knew early on that he could not take this piece of bronze with him out of the country. All the bronzes with inscriptions were antiques that were prohibited from going abroad.
What's more, this bronze is not simply with an inscription, but a genuine national treasure-level bronze.
Thanks to the study during this period, Zhang Junping successfully appraised this bronze.
This is a bronze ware from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is not an ordinary bronze ware. This is a ritual vessel specially customized for princes.
Although Zhang Junping didn't recognize the inscription on it, he was basically certain that it was a custom-made ritual vessel to record a certain important event.
Moreover, this bronze statue is also an object with clear records in the collection of the Qing Palace. It is the Marquis of Lu of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Bronze ritual vessels with inscriptions are now being severely punished. If Old Fengtou dares to take it out of the country, he will not be jailed, but shot.
Therefore, Old Fengtou did not plan to take the bronze statue out from the beginning, but planned to sell it to Zhang Junping.
Even if Zhang Junping doesn't mention it, he will find a way to mention it.
Zhang Junping lamented that he was still too young to remain calm.
If Lao Fengtou had proposed it himself and Zhang Junping would not have to lower the price, Lao Fengtou's asking price would have been much lower.
Now, Zhang Junping has stated that he will not lower the price, so he can only charge according to the market price.
The difference between inside and outside is more than 100,000.
Thinking of this, Zhang Junping smiled with relief. He just wanted to charge according to the market price. He had no intention of lowering the price, so there was nothing to worry about.
"Uncle Feng, now that the bronze statue has been taken out, let's take out all the other treasures as well!
Don’t worry, I, Zhang Junping, will keep my word and will never take advantage of the situation and do such despicable things as lowering prices!” Zhang Junping looked up at Old Feng and let out a hearty laugh.
"Master Zhang really has a sharp eye. I can't hide anything from Master Zhang!" Old Fengtou said and walked into the back room again. After a while, he took out another box.
There was still a little bit of soil on the box, and it looked like it had just been dug out of the ground.
Zhang Junping had a faint smile on his face and looked at Old Feng's head without saying anything.
Old Fengtou looked at Zhang Junping and smiled mysteriously.
That smile seemed to be showing off, and it also seemed to tell Zhang Junping to keep your eyes open and watch.
Open the box and take out something from inside.
Looking at what Old Feng was holding, Zhang Junping smiled silently, with the corners of his mouth raised.
This is right!
Old Fengtou worked so hard to perform such a play, how could it be just a bronze vessel?
Compared with unpopular bronzes like Lu Houzun, the one in front of you is famous, but strictly speaking, this one should not be classified as a bronze.
Because this is a bronze vessel made of a unique red copper alloy material, the Xuande Furnace.
Xuande furnace has a unique position in history.
Since its birth, various legends have continued for hundreds of years.
There are also many legendary stories about the manufacturing process of Xuande furnace.
Among the two more reliable theories, one is that the Kingdom of Siam paid a tribute of red copper. Emperor Xuande ordered the craftsman Lu Zhen, the palace supervisor, and Wu Bangzuo, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, to refer to the Chai kiln and Ru kiln in the imperial palace.
The styles of famous porcelain from Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln and Ding Kiln, as well as historical books such as "Xuanhe Bogu Illustration" and "Archaeological Map", design and supervise the production of incense burners.
In order to ensure the quality of the incense burner, Lu Zhen tremblingly told the emperor that in order to make a good incense burner, the copper had to be refined six times. Refining once, less, after six times, only half of the raw materials would be left. Emperor Xuande was wealthy and had a strong sense of quality.
Strong, he immediately ordered not only to not reduce the number of refining times, but also to double it twelve times and add precious metals such as gold and silver.
So Lu Zhen selected dozens of precious metals such as gold and silver, and carefully cast them with red copper more than ten times. After great efforts, in the third year of Xuande, the top-quality copper incense burner was finally successfully produced.
There is another saying that during the Xuande period, the Buddhist temple in the palace caught fire, and the gold, silver, and bronze statues were mixed into liquid. It is also said that the Buddhist scriptures caught fire, and the gold, silver, jewelry, and copper were sintered together, so Emperor Xuande ordered it to be cast into a copper furnace
.
In both legends, three thousand incense burners were refined.
Of the two theories, Zhang Junping prefers the latter. Due to the fire in the Buddhist temple, the bronze Buddha statues and gold and silver in the Buddhist temple melted and blended together, making them inseparable, so they had to be cast into incense burners.
The three thousand copper furnaces cast were kept by Emperor Xuande for use in the palace, and the rest were given to the ministers of the court.
After the incense burner was cast, the Baoguang Si** style was restrained, dignified and majestic, and was very popular.
Since the Xuande period, people have been imitating it.
Many emperors have tried to imitate Xuande furnaces. Even Lu Zhen, the royal craftsman who cast Xuande furnaces, and Wu Bangzuo, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, also made a second casting for profit, but they could not achieve perfect imitations.
If it was intentionally cast and gold and silver were mixed into the red copper, there must be proportions and written records.
Copper is not scarce, nor is gold or silver.
Only copper alloys produced under such unexpected circumstances will have no matching records due to randomness and cannot be perfectly copied.
Some people may say that maybe Lu Zhen forgot to record the ratio of gold, silver and copper alloys at that time.
This is impossible. In ancient times, if folk craftsmen could not do their jobs well, they would have nothing to eat at most.
As for the royal craftsmen in the palace, if they make mistakes, they will lose their heads or even have their homes ransacked.
Therefore, it is impossible for the royal craftsmen back then to make such omissions under the threat of confiscating their homes and turning around.
Zhang Junping picked up the Xuande furnace and did not rush to look at the bottom price, but first looked at the furnace body.
The incense burner has a natural patina, a restrained luster, and a harmonious whole. It is an old object with a wide open door.
Looking at the bottom model again, it was made in the Xuande year of the Ming Dynasty. There is one less horizontal line in the middle of the word "de". This is the characteristic of the Xuande year model.
However, this is not enough evidence for identification.
The character "DE" has one less horizontal line. Anyone who has done a little research on Xuande inscriptions will know this feature.
Looking at the vessel type, it is indeed the standard vessel type of the copper furnaces produced in the third year of Xuande reign.
However, this is not enough to identify the characteristics of Xuande stoves, because there are too many imitations and the material cannot be perfectly imitated, but the shape and base model can be imitated perfectly.
After reading it, Zhang Junping put down the copper stove and asked calmly: "Uncle Feng, how do you plan to sell this copper stove?"
"Half a million!"
"High!
Except for those few Xuande incense burners that are clearly recorded in classics and passed down in an orderly manner, the rest are worthless!" Zhang Junping shook his head.
Xuande stoves are very famous, but the market price has never been high.
Because there are too many imitations.
The new imitations are easy to identify, but the imitations made by Xuandenian himself and those imitated in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties have already passed the time. Without seeing the real thing, it is totally a joke to rely on your eyesight and knowledge to distinguish the authenticity.
That kind of ability to tell authenticity at a glance only exists in novels.
"What if the inheritance is orderly?" Lao Feng asked with a confident smile.