Chapter 64: Inkstone

  The inkstones on this side are not bad, but most of them were made in modern times. Only a few inkstones were from the Republic of China or the Qing Dynasty, but they weren't particularly good either. Chu Chen naturally wasn't interested, so he roughly browsed through them and moved to the other side.

  However, when Chu Chen arrived here, Wen Yuting and the others had already carefully selected a Qinghua porcelain inkstone each, and seeing him coming over, they wanted to ask for his opinion.

  Chu Chen took two inkstones and looked at them. After a glance, he felt that they were not bad at all. Wen Yuting's was from the Republic of China era, while Chu Yulan's was actually from the Ming Dynasty.

  This inkstone, the ink pool is unglazed, slightly concave to facilitate grinding ink. The rest of the area is glazed, with a dense and pure white body, and a thick and rich glaze. The blue and white flowers have a bluish-purple color, which should be a mixture of Qinghua and Shizi Qing materials, with freehand brushstrokes. On the bottom, there are six characters "Da Ming Jiajing Nian Zhi" in seal script with double circles, strong and powerful.

  The whole body is exquisitely shaped and lovely, with a slightly indented abdomen, depicting a auspicious lingzhi scroll grass pattern, which is one of the common decorations of Qinghua porcelain in this period. Although the inkstone is small, it is extremely delicate and should be an imperial kiln work, making it highly collectible for those who love stationery.

  After watching the two inkstones, Chu Chen smiled and said: "These two inkstones are not bad, if the price is not expensive, we can take them down." After that, he made a gesture of comparing prices to the two people.

  The two women immediately knew what to do and enthusiastically asked the boss for the price.

  Chu Chen saw this, originally planned to ignore the inkstone on this side, but unexpectedly, a glance at the remaining light revealed that several inkstones looked like fine pieces, so he immediately became interested and carefully observed them.

  There are three inkstones that can enter the eyes of Chu Zhun, one is a round mountain and water blue and white porcelain inkstone in the middle of Qing Dynasty. The whole body of this inkstone is glazed, the ink hall is slightly concave, the embryo is pure white, and the glaze quality also reflects the standard of the mid-Qing period. The celadon color is light green, and the overall painting is a landscape, with natural brushstrokes, showing that the painter has a certain level of skill.

  Unfortunately, this inkstone is a work of Minyao, but overall, it is also a fine piece in the middle period of Minyao, with certain collection value.

  There is also a inkstone, which is also a work of Minyao kiln, but it is more delicate. This round blue and white porcelain inkstone has two layers, with the middle part being the ink-receiving area, surrounded by an ink channel, and the ceramic cover is decorated with a pattern of auspicious clouds and cranes. The inkstone is adorned with twisted branch flower patterns.

  This inkstone, in terms of its body, glaze, blue and white coloration, and painting craftsmanship, embodies the highest standards of civilian kilns during the mid-Qing period. It can be said that it is a rare masterpiece among civilian kilns, with great collection value.

  The last inkstone, when Chu Chen took it in his hand, was also stunned, because if it were a genuine product, why would the boss not keep it by his side, but put it among this pile of inkstones that had some fine pieces, but overall value was not high? Did he not know the value of this inkstone? Moreover, Chu Chen could confirm in his heart that this was not a fake.

  As mentioned earlier, the inkstones here are very similar to tile bases, but after all, they are still round inkstones. The real imitation tile base Qinghua porcelain inkstone is only this one in Chuxin's hand.

  During the Qing dynasty, Qianlong had a special fondness for gold and stone, so he imitated the Wa Dang inkstone with blue and white porcelain. The bottom of this ceramic inkstone has the four characters "延年益寿" (prolonging life and increasing longevity) in seal script, while the upper middle part is exposed as the inkstone surface. A pool for holding water is left around it, making the design reasonable. On one side of the inkstone, there is a blue and white inscription that reads: "Made and inscribed by Peng Ning in the Yiyou year of Qianlong's reign in the Yi Garden."

  By observing the glaze, body, enamel, inscriptions and marks, etc., Chu Qing's own eyes can tell that this is a genuine piece, not only genuine but also a rare fine product.

  Chu Chen thought to himself that it was likely the boss had made a mistake, so he picked up the double-layered Qinghua porcelain inkstone again and asked the boss: "Boss, I'll just choose these two inkstones. Give me a real price, how about it?"

  At this time, others had already made a successful transaction, the boss earned several thousand yuan and was very happy. He took a look at the two inkstones in Chu Chen's hand, thought for a moment and said: "This brother of mine, you really have good eyesight, these two inkstones are among the few fine products here, today thanks to everyone's support, how about one million?"

  Ten thousand is indeed not a small amount, but in the antique business, who doesn't pay their debts? So Chu Chen thought for a moment and smiled: "Boss, look at how much business we've brought you today. I won't haggle too much, eight thousand, if you're willing to listen to me, I'll take it away."

  The boss thought for a moment and smiled: "Alright, I see you're also a straightforward person. This price is for you."

  After the transaction was completed, the boss handed them a few business cards and smiled: "Everyone, please take care of me in the future. I don't just have these Han tiles. If you need Qin and Han artifacts, you can call me."

  The antique industry's information channels are the most important, so Chu Chen and others gladly accepted the business cards.

  Because Zhou Wenping bought more than thirty pieces of Han tiles, the quantity was relatively large, so after everyone packed up the Han tiles, they went to handle the consignment and directly transported them to Beijing, asking Wu Shu to help receive them.

  After everything was done, it turned out to be lunchtime. Hou Yuanming enthusiastically took them to a local well-known restaurant for a meal. The dishes were good, the wine was fine, and the atmosphere was even better. Everyone was clinking glasses and having a great time.

  After having enough wine and food, Chu Chen asked about the transaction price of everyone's purchases earlier. The boss was quite generous, giving everyone a pretty good price, and Chu Yulan's inkstone only cost 800 yuan, so Chu Chen smiled and said:

  "Xiao Lan, I didn't expect you to pick up a small leak today. I guess the boss thought it was from Minyao, so he gave it to you at that price."

  "Ah! We all bought it at the price you quoted!"

  Chu Yulan smiled and said: "Yuting, you misunderstood. Chu Ge definitely wouldn't compare prices with us for just a few hundred bucks."

  After hearing this, Wen Yuting thought about it and felt that Chu Chen didn't need to be so careful for just a few hundred dollars. She said with some embarrassment: "I was mistaken, how much is your inkstone worth, Xiaolan? Eight thousand or eight million?"

  Chu Yulan smiled and said: "Eight thousand is still about right, it's definitely not possible for eight hundred thousand."

  Seeing Chu Chen nodding, Wen Yuting said enviously: "That's not bad either, 8,000 to 80,000, it's increased ninefold! Xiaolan, I found that this time we came with Brother Chu, you earned hundreds of thousands!"

  Chu Yulan thought about it and felt the same way, so she quickly expressed her gratitude to Chu Chen.

  Chu Chen smiled and said: "Actually, this has nothing to do with me, it's all because of your own choice, Small Orchid, you're just lucky."

  Hou Yuanming listened to what they said and became somewhat curious, so Li Guodong added oil and vinegar to the previous story, but he didn't mention Yu Cai's affairs because that thing was too valuable, fearing that speaking out would move people's hearts with wealth.

  After Li Guodong finished speaking, Hou Yuanming smiled and said: "Xiao Chu, I didn't expect your eyesight to be so good. The inkstone you bought earlier must be pretty good too."

  Chu Chen smiled and said: "It's okay, you can take a look."

  After he finished speaking, he took out those two inkstones and put them on the table, and everyone came up to take a look.

  The double-layered Qinghua porcelain inkstone was nothing special, but when Zhou Wenping picked up that piece of imitation Han Dynasty tile inkstone, he let out a soft "hmm", and everyone's eyes turned to him.

  Zhou Wenping carefully examined the inkstone and exclaimed, "Xiao Chuan, this can't be a genuine early Penglang-style Wadang inkstone? Never mind, you don't need to answer. If it's not real, you wouldn't have bought it."

  Hou Yuanming was also surprised after hearing this and said: "You're talking about the Chu Pengling who built 'Sui Chudang'?"

  "Who is Chu Pengnian? Is he very famous?" Li Guodong asked curiously.

  Peng Lian, Qing dynasty minister, courtesy name Shaozu, also known as Yiyuan, was a jinshi in the 36th year of Qianlong and a jinshi in the 45th year of Qianlong. He served as Jixi Dao Yu Shi, Xunfu, and due to his straightforwardness and bravery in speaking out, he attracted attention from the imperial court. He was promoted to Gongbu Shilang, Bingbu Shilang, Xingbu Shilang, Yun Nan Xunfu, Jiangsu Xunfu, etc. In the first year of Daoguang, he served as Minister of War.

  He was an official who was straightforward and had many admonitions, and had repeatedly impeached the powerful officials in the court, with benevolent policies. Moreover, his family also had a large collection of books, built a book house called "Suichu Hall", which collected many old and rare books, compiled "Suichu Hall Book Catalogue" one volume, copied version, recorded more than 2,000 kinds of books, mostly Ming edition, and also included Song and Yuan editions.

  Zhou Wenping smiled and said, "You say that such a person has no name, like this one he personally inscribed and signed, carefully crafted imitation Han Dynasty inkstone, I've never seen it before, I think it should be extremely rare, or simply a unique piece, do you think the value will be low?"

  "What's the value of this inkstone?" Li Guodong asked immediately after hearing that.

  Zhou Wenping thought for a moment and said: "It depends on personal preference, I think it should be between 100,000 to 150,000."

  Wow!

  Everyone heard the quote and suddenly there was another commotion. Just now, Chu Yulan also picked up a leak, but because of the small base number, it didn't matter much. Now, Chu Chen's inkstone, which cost several thousand yuan, instantly became over a million yuan, giving people a great shock. However, thinking about the previous Detu Jade Cicada, everyone was just excited for a short while.

  However, Hou Yuanming was not clear, so he gave Chu Chen a thumbs up and admired: "Little Chu, your eyesight is really unbeatable!"

  Chu Chenqian humbly said: "It's all luck, I think the owner of this inkstone hasn't taken it out for long, otherwise any slightly knowledgeable collector would have discovered it."

  Hou Yuanming smiled and said, "Having good luck is great. Let's not talk about anything else, just take our game of guessing the quality of jade stones as an example. Even if your eyesight is excellent, if you're unlucky, you'll still end up losing everything."

  At this time, Li Guodong mysteriously smiled and said: "Hou Ge, you don't know, do you? Xiao Chuan is actually an expert in guessing the quality of jade, he has even cracked open glass-like ones before."

  Hou Yuanming exclaimed in surprise: "Really?! I didn't know you had this skill, Little Chu! What are we waiting for? Come to my shop and show off your skills!"...