Chapter 34: The Two Hundred Yuan Xuande Furnace

Zhang Jun remained expressionless, and stepped forward to observe carefully. Under the perspective, he found that the iron incense burner was hollow, and a copper incense burner was wrapped inside, and the gap between the two was filled with paraffin wax.

"It's very difficult to make this thing, and the maker must have spent a lot of time." Zhang Jun thought, "Then even if the thing inside is not a Xuande furnace, how much is it worth?"

Thinking of this, he pointed to the iron incense burner and asked, "Boss, how much is this per catty?"

The boss almost vomited blood when he heard it, and shouted: "I said big brother, you are buying cabbage, this is the real thing!"

Zhang Jun curled his lips and said: "Okay, boss, I know if you are real or not. I am short of an incense burner at home, so please give me a price. Let me explain first, if you give me a high price, I can turn around and leave, and buy another day." It’s the same as a stone incense burner.”

When meeting someone like Zhang Jun, the boss secretly called it unlucky, but he had kept the iron incense burner in his hands for more than half a year. He had collected a hundred yuan from the countryside at the beginning, and he hadn't been able to sell it.

After thinking about it, the boss said, "Brother, do you think five hundred yuan is worth it?"

Zhang Jun turned his head and left, but the boss behind him got anxious and shouted, "Brother, stop, four hundred!"

Without turning his head, Zhang Jun said: "Two hundred yuan, don't sell it."

The boss gritted his teeth and thought that he had made a hundred yuan anyway, so he sold it to him. Thinking of this, he sighed helplessly, and said, "Okay, two hundred is two hundred, and the market is not open for a day, so it's cheaper for you."

Zhang Jun grinned, handed over the 200 fast cash, then picked up the iron incense burner and left. He ran to Professor Guo and said, "Professor Guo, I bought a treasure."

Professor Guo was looking at something, turned his head to look at it and was happy, and asked with a smile: "How much did you buy it for?"

Zhang Jun answered honestly, "Two hundred."

Professor Guo nodded: "That's right, now that the price of steel has risen, we will be able to protect our capital in a few years."

People around laughed when they heard it, and Zhang Jun also laughed along with "hehe".

Professor Guo was obviously joking just now, and now he said seriously: "Xiao Zhang, it's normal to drill eyes on this street, but you have to learn to gain wisdom by learning from the pitfalls, so that you can sharpen your eyesight."

Zhang Jun nodded hastily and said, "Professor Guo, let me ask a question, how much is the Xuande furnace worth?"

Guo Lan also came over at this time. Hearing his question, she shook her head and sighed, and said deliberately: "Vulgar, really vulgar, how can you make an archaeologist feel embarrassed by asking such a question."

Professor Guo glared at his daughter, and said to Zhang Jun: "There are very few real Xuande furnaces in the world, and they are exquisitely made. Emperor Xuande only made 3,000 pieces. Now, only a few pieces from the Palace Museum and two pieces from the British Museum have been partially removed." People regarded it as genuine, while the whereabouts of others are unknown."

"Xuande Furnace had imitations in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and there were a lot of them. But even if they were imitations, many of them could be worth more than 70,000 to 80,000 yuan. Later, there were more imitations, from the Republic of China to modern ones. You Go out and have a look, almost every antique shop has a few Xuande furnaces on display, but they are all imitations.”

"As for the real Xuande incense burner, it is a priceless treasure, a national treasure, and no one will sell it." Professor Guo said, "And even if someone comes up with a real Xuande three-year-old incense burner, no one in the world can say for sure. its authenticity."

Zhang Jun became anxious when he heard this, and said, "What? So there is no way to judge the authenticity of the Xuande Furnace?" He also thought about making a fortune with the things in his arms, who knew it would be like this.

Professor Guo looked at Zhang Jun with a half-smile, and said, "Why, look at you, can you have a real Xuande stove in your hand?"

The latter laughed dryly, and naturally he would not say it in such a public place.

Professor Guo explained the whole story in detail, saying: "In order to make incense burners in the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xuande ordered the royal craftsmen to refer to the famous porcelains of Chai Kiln, Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln and Ding Kiln in the imperial palace. style, and historical books such as "Archaeological Map", designed and supervised the production of a batch of incense burners."

"In order to ensure the quality of the incense burner, craftsmen selected dozens of precious metals such as gold and silver, and carefully cast them together with red copper for more than ten times. The finished copper incense burner has a crystal clear and moist color, which is a treasure among handicrafts. As for the long period of history, Xuande Furnace has become a common name for copper incense burner."

"However, Xuande only cast 3,000 incense burners in three years, and they have not been produced since then. They are all hidden in the forbidden palace, and ordinary people only know their names but not their shapes. Now after hundreds of years of ups and downs , the real copper incense burner cast in Xuande three years is extremely rare."

"In order to make huge profits, from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty to the period of the Republic of China, antique dealers imitated Xuande furnaces. The drawings and process procedures are imitated. These carefully cast imitations are comparable to the real ones, and even experts cannot distinguish them. So far, none of the many Xuande furnaces collected in major museums in China can be recognized by many connoisseurs as It is the real Xuande furnace. Identifying the true and false Xuande furnace has become one of the unsolved cases in the domestic archaeological circle."

After hearing this, Zhang Jun smiled wryly and said, "In this way, even the real Xuande may not be sold at a high price in three years."

Professor Guo said: "That may not be the case. Some imitations are exquisite in workmanship and occasionally sell for sky-high prices. Not long ago, a Xuande stove in Hong Kong was sold for a high price of 28 million."

Zhang Jun nodded and stopped talking. If it was only 28 million, he would not be in a hurry to get rid of the item in his arms. After all, it might be the real Xuande three-year copper incense burner.

When Professor Guo finally bought a bronze mirror, Zhang Jun stepped forward and whispered: "Professor Guo, let's go home, I have something to tell you."

Seeing his mysterious behavior, Professor Guo was curious, but he resisted asking, nodded and said, "Okay, go back."

When they got in the car, Guo Lan asked first, she asked suspiciously: "Zhang Jun, we just arrived, why are you leaving in such a hurry?"

Zhang Jun said with a serious face, "You can't say, you'll know when you get home." His expression made Professor Guo dare not ask, but the doubts in his stomach became more and more intense.

After finally returning home, Guo Lan hurriedly said, "Zhang Jun, can you tell me now? Have you found a treasure?"

Professor Guo also looked expectant, staring at Zhang Jun and said: "Xiao Zhang, from the way you look, you probably found something good, right?"

Zhang Jun smiled "hehe" and said, "Actually, it's not really a good thing, because even if it's real, it might not fetch a good price."

Professor Guo was taken aback: "You mean the Xuande furnace?" He is a smart person, remembering that Zhang Jun asked about the situation of the Xuande furnace before, he guessed it immediately.

Zhang Jun nodded, put down the iron incense burner in his arms, and said solemnly: "That's it."

"puff!"

Guo Lan almost spit out the tea she had just taken, then pointed at Zhang Jun and laughed "haha", saying, "Zhang Jun, I didn't expect you to be so humorous, I'm dying of laughter."

Seeing this almost ugly iron incense burner, normal people would think that Zhang Jun was joking. Professor Guo was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head and laughed, and said, "You kid, you even play tricks on me, an old man."

Zhang Jun laughed "hehe" without arguing, and said, "Professor Guo, do you have tools for cutting steel at home?"

The father and daughter thought that Zhang Jun was joking just now, but when they saw it and made a request, their curiosity came up again. Professor Guo led Zhang Jun into his studio, pointed to a cutting machine and said, "I usually use this machine to cut ceramics, and it's fine for cutting steel. Zhang Jun, what do you want to do?"

Zhang Jun went over to try the machine, and soon became familiar with the operation method, then put the iron incense burner on it and fixed it, turned on the power and started cutting.

Seeing this scene, Guo Lan's father and daughter opened their eyes wide, thinking of something vaguely in their hearts, and a trace of expectation gradually appeared on their faces. When Zhang Jun was about to cut off a piece of iron sheet, the two of them were so nervous that they didn't even dare to breathe.

"Ding!"

A hollow lug fell to the ground, and the paraffin wax filled in its hollow part was melted by the heat generated by the cutting.

"Wax?" Professor Guo's eyebrows trembled, his expression changed, and he blurted out, "There must be an incense burner inside, this is the master's treasure-hiding method, Xiao Zhang, you may really have found the treasure! "

Zhang Jun smiled without saying a word, and continued to cut. Under his perspective, the cutting was very precise, and the copper incense burner inside was not damaged at all. About half an hour later, a copper censer wrapped in paraffin appeared in front of several people.

Professor Guo quickly took the censer, scraped off most of the paraffin on the old surface with a tool, then found a barrel of gasoline, and put the copper censer into it to melt the paraffin. Then they were cleaned one by one with several solvents, and finally they were wiped with soft cotton and filaments.

Soon, a bronze censer with a simple and majestic appearance, yellow and red, and a warm coating appeared in front of everyone. It is cast with extremely exquisite patterns on the outside, without a trace of rust, and shines brightly.

Seeing this copper censer, Professor Guo was completely infatuated, and murmured: "Even if such an exquisite thing was not made by Xuande three years ago, it must have been imitated by the casting officials in the Ming Dynasty. It is so perfect! "

Guo Lan also stared at the censer, and couldn't help but said, "I never thought the censer could be so beautiful."

Professor Guo looked at Zhang Jun at this time and said, "Xiao Zhang, thank you for showing us such a valuable thing."

Zhang Jun smiled "hehe": "Professor Guo is too polite, and I don't know if it's true or not, so I'd like to ask you to have a look."

Professor Guo said: "To be honest, I haven't seen what the real Xuande three-year copper incense burner looks like, so I can't judge it. Well, if you trust me, I will invite a few people who have profound attainments in bronze identification. Experts from all over the world come here to evaluate and appraise together.”

When he spoke, he looked nervous, for fear that Zhang Jun would not agree. For an old archaeologist, being able to see and study handed down objects is the happiest moment in their life.

Without hesitation, Zhang Jun nodded and said: "Of course, I can put the things here with Professor Guo first, and let me know when there are results."