treasure hunter

Seeing that Pei Miao was so straightforward, the clerk was of course very happy, and immediately billed Pei Miao and swiped his card. A few minutes later, the transaction was successful. The clerk packed the brush washer, put it in front of Pei Miao, and said, "Sir, your brush washer, Please take it."

"Thank you." Pei Miao suppressed the excitement in her heart, pretended to be very calm, picked up the box containing the brushes and washers, turned around and raised an eyebrow at Chen Wei, "Let's go."

The two walked out of the store together.

After leaving the store, Pei Miao carefully observed the brush washer in her hand with all her attention, and grinned happily. Seeing Pei Miao's happy appearance, Chen Wei couldn't help asking, "What's wrong? Did you find the treasure?"

"That's right, I found a treasure." Pei Miao grinned silly and said, "You don't know how precious this thing is."

Chen Wei asked: "How expensive is it? Didn't you buy it for 58? Could it be worth 580 million?"

Pei Miao raised her eyebrows and said, "It's only high but not low."

Chen Wei exclaimed: "It's so expensive!? How is it possible!?"

Pei Miao said, "Do you know what this is?"

Chen Weidao: "Bishi, I am also a person who has practiced calligraphy, how could I not know Bixi."

"No, I'm asking you, do you know what kind of brush this is?"

Chen Wei shook his head: "I don't know that."

Pei Miao excitedly said, "This is a Dingyao brush washer."

"Ding kiln brush wash? Is it expensive?"

"Remove the word "ma." Pei Miao said, "very expensive. Ding Kiln was one of the six major kilns in the Song Dynasty. Its main production area was Quyang County, Baoding, Hebei. During the Tang Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Dingzhou, so it was called Ding Kiln. The kiln originated in the Tang Dynasty. It was originally a folk kiln. In the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, porcelain for the palace began to be fired, and it reached its peak in the Song and Jin Dynasties. Ding Kiln is cited as the mouth of the imperial kiln. It can be seen how exquisite the porcelain of Ding Kiln is. At present, there are very few Ding Kiln porcelains left in the world. In addition, the long history and superb craftsmanship of Ding Kiln have also led to countless collections. Everyone is crazy about Ding Kiln, and the price of Ding Kiln porcelain is also rising again and again. My Ding Kiln brush washer is in good condition, exquisite craftsmanship, and the shape is quite good. It is definitely the porcelain of Ding Kiln's peak period. If It’s not difficult to fetch tens of millions at an auction.”

"Is it so expensive?" Chen Wei had an unbelievable expression on her face, then she shifted her gaze, looked at Pei Miao, and said, "No wonder you are so rich, you can unravel a stone for tens of millions, pick up an antique for tens of millions , I feel a little poor in front of you."

Pei Miao smiled and said, "It's not as exaggerated as you said, how could it be possible to get tens of millions easily, such an opportunity is rarely encountered."

They were chatting here when Xu Hongchang came out of a shop diagonally opposite and saw them from a distance, so Xu Hongchang walked towards them.

Xu Hongchang walked closer and called out, "Pei Miao, Miss Chen."

Only now did Pei Miao see Xu Hongchang, and greeted him with a smile: "Teacher Xu."

Chen Wei also turned around to say hello: "Mr. Xu, you can just call me Chen Wei."

"Hey, Pei Miao, have you bought something?" Xu Hongchang saw the box in Pei Miao's hand.

"Yes." Pei Miao nodded, "I bought a pen washer."

Xu Hongchang said: "I bought it at this store? I have seen this store, but I didn't see anything good."

Pei Miao said, "Huh? You've seen it, I thought I missed it."

Xu Hongchang said: "The main thing is that the things in this store are not accessible, which makes people feel very uncomfortable. I walked around and came out. Can you show me your brush washer?"

Pei Miao said, "Find a place to sit down and watch slowly."

Xu Hongchang said: "There is a teahouse in front, let's sit down and drink tea while watching."

"Okay, let's go and drink tea."

Xu Hongchang took them to the teahouse in front of them, went in and asked for a small private room. After sitting down, Xu Hongchang ordered a pot of Queue tea and some snacks. Soon, all the tea and snacks were served.

After the waiter left, Xu Hongchang took a sip of tea, put down the teacup, and said, "Come on, let's have a look at the brush washer."

Pei Miao opened the box, took out the brush washer from inside, and gently placed it in front of Xu Hongchang.

"This is..." Xu Hongchang stared at it for a moment and asked, "Can I get started?"

"Okay." Pei Miao smiled and spread her hands, motioning for him to start watching.

Xu Hongchang first picked up the cover of the brush washer and looked it over carefully, and then picked up the brush washer to examine it carefully. After reading it, he said thoughtfully: "This is a brush washer from the Northern Song Dynasty, and the craftsmanship is not bad. At first glance, I thought it was Ding Kiln porcelain, but after a closer look, the glaze color is a bit strange, and the enamel and tire quality are not quite similar, how much did you pay for it?"

Pei Miao said, "58 million."

"So expensive?!" Xu Hongchang was a little surprised when he heard the words, and then shook his head and sighed, "It's expensive. Although it is something from the Northern Song Dynasty, the kiln mouth is not very good. My guide price is within [-]."

Pei Miao said: "Isn't this the Ding Kiln, but I think it's the Ding Kiln."

Xu Hongchang shook his head and said, "It's not the Ding Kiln. The texture of the tire and the enamel are wrong. It can't be the Ding Kiln."

Pei Miao said, "But I look alike."

Xu Hongchang said with a smile: "It's really not Dingyao, Pei Miao, you've got your eye pierced this time. Having said that, seeing how many leaks you've picked up, this is the first time I've seen you punch your eye."

Pei Miao said unwillingly, "Teacher Xu, why don't you take a closer look with a magnifying glass?"

Xu Hongchang can completely understand Pei Miao's mood. Many people are like this, and he used to be like this too. He wanted to pick up the loopholes, but in the end he fell into the pit. When he knew the truth, the feeling was really indescribable.

As an old senior, Xu Hongchang was still very considerate of Pei Miao, and said, "Okay, I'll take a closer look with a magnifying glass." He took out the magnifying glass from his pocket as he spoke.

In fact, you don’t need a magnifying glass when looking at porcelain, unless you have presbyopia, or it’s hard to tell if a certain piece of porcelain is real or fake. After all, Xu Hongchang is only 50 years old. He felt that using a magnifying glass was unnecessary.

Xu Hongchang looked at the washer carefully with a magnifying glass. After looking at it, he let out a surprise and frowned.

Seeing this, Pei Miao was secretly happy, Xu Hongchang had already discovered the clue.

The film on the surface of this brush is very thin and has no color, or the color is very light. Generally, it is difficult to find it, but if you are a very experienced expert, you can still see something wrong with a magnifying glass. of the place.

Xu Hongchang looked at it for a long time, and carefully stroked the surface of the brush with his hands. It seemed that it was not enough to see it with his eyes, and he had to touch it with his hands.

After touching it for a while, Xu Hongchang raised his head and asked Pei Miao, "Can I scrape the surface of this brush with my fingernail?"

Pei Miao nodded: "Scratch it, it's okay."

He believed that an experienced expert like Xu Hongchang would be able to grasp the severity.

Xu Hongchang quickly scraped the surface of the pen wash with his thumbnail, and then carefully observed the scratched part with a magnifying glass, and there seemed to be white traces.

Xu Hongchang exclaimed: "There is something on the surface!"

"Really!? Let me see!" Pei Miao pretended not to know anything, brought the brush washer and magnifying glass, looked at the scratched part for a while, and then exclaimed, "There is really something there!" , Such scratches on the surface of the enamel will definitely not be scratched with nails, Mr. Xu, is this patina?"

"It's not patina." Xu Hongchang said, "I thought it was patina at first, but this pen washer is not the kind of thing that can be held and played with in the hand. How could there be patina, and if there is patina, the luster It's not right either."

Pei Miao asked in surprise, "What is that?"

"Let me think, let me think." Xu Hongchang closed his eyes slightly, pinched his temple with his right hand, and began to think carefully.

After thinking for a while, Xu Hongchang suddenly said: "If I guessed correctly, this is very likely to be a long-lost--the hidden method."

"Survey and concealment?" Pei Miao asked, "What is reveal and conceal?"

"One way to hide the performance of antiques is to coat the surface of antiques with a layer of metal. Don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients. As early as 2000 years ago, there was a precedent for plating metal chrome on swords."

Pei Miao said, "I know this, but...this is porcelain, can the surface of porcelain be plated with metal?"

Xu Hongchang said: "Only you can't think of it. There is nothing that the working people of our country can't do. It's the same sentence. Don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients."

At this time, Chen Wei, who had been silent all this time, suddenly asked: "Then what's the use of plating metal on the surface of this brush?"

Xu Hongchang said: "Because the surface of Yuexiang Goujian's sword is plated with chrome, it has not rusted after more than 2000 years. It can be seen that this is a very good protective layer. I don't know what metal is plated on the surface of this porcelain. , but it is certain that this has played a great protective role in the color and glaze color of porcelain."

Chen Wei asked: "Will the flower color and glaze color of porcelain also fade?"

"Yes." Pei Miao said, "the universe has its own age, what else can withstand the ravages of time, two identical blue and white porcelain vases, one is placed outside in the wind and sun, the other is dried at home Keep it in the dark, and after three to five years, if you put the two vases together and compare them, you can see the difference at a glance, the flower color and glaze color of the vase that has experienced Feng Shui and the sun have obviously faded."

Xu Hongchang nodded and said: "It's like this. Although porcelain is not as delicate as calligraphy and painting, it is also afraid of sunlight. Oh, this coating is amazing. This coating also has a function, which is to make things distorted. Looking at this porcelain through the coating The enamel, glaze color and tire quality of the enamel are not sure at all, which is why I said before that this is not a Ding kiln."

Pei Miao said, "At first glance, it still looks a bit like Ding Kiln."

"Yes, it's only for a moment." Xu Hongchang said, "Let me think about how to wash the secret method... Wait a minute, I'll make a call and ask my friend."

Xu Hongchang took out his mobile phone and started making calls. On the phone, he called the other party Lao Li, who seemed to be his senior. After a few words of pleasantries, Xu Hongchang began to ask the other party how to crack the hidden method.

The other party obviously had never encountered anything that was hidden, and said that he wanted to check the information and asked Xu Hongchang to wait for a while.

Xu Hongchang hung up the phone and drank tea and chatted with Pei Miao and the others while waiting.

About 10 minutes later, Xu Hongchang's phone rang. It was Lao Li who called. Lao Li found a way to clean up the secret method. He told Xu Hongchang on the phone, and Xu Hongchang took notes with a pen, because Xu Hongchang wanted to When writing, he put the mobile phone on the table and turned on the hands-free, Pei Miao naturally heard it, and kept this method in his heart.

After Xu Hongchang finished recording, he thanked him again and again, and said that when he went to Kyoto in the future, he would treat Lao Li to dinner.

After hanging up Lao Li's phone, Xu Hongchang got up and said, "Let's go, find a place to buy materials and prepare potions."

From Lao Li's phone description, the best way to eliminate the hidden method is to clean it. After all, it is a metal coating. When cleaning, it is natural to need some slightly corrosive things, but the corrosiveness should not be too strong, so Proper potion preparation is very important.

These materials are still sold in Yunzhou Antique City, because sometimes they can be used to clean some porcelain and jade wares. Of course, those materials are also relatively common, and the largest amount of them is alcohol, followed by oxalic acid and acetic acid.

Then, they went back to the teahouse, still asked for a private room, and began to prepare the potion in the private room.

First, put water in the basin, then pour 2ml of alcohol, put [-] grams of oxalic acid, [-] grams of acetic acid, and stir well. minute.

After soaking, Xu Hongchang picked up a piece of soft cloth and began to gently wipe the surface of the brush wash. In fact, he was very nervous and didn't know if the amount he had prepared was correct.

The wiping process was a bit slow, after all, the acid solution was very dilute, and after about 3 minutes of wiping, Xu Hongchang stopped, checked the wiping area, and found that the color had changed significantly, and the coating had been wiped off.

Pei Miao happily said: "Mr. Xu, this method is useful!"

Xu Hong also nodded excitedly and continued to wipe.

After working for four to ten minutes, Xu Hongchang was so busy that he was sweating profusely. Pei Miao wanted to replace him, but he refused. Antique lovers are like this. When encountering such a thing, you must experience it.

After wiping, Xu Hongchang cleaned the brush washer and cover with clean water several times, and he didn't stop until Pei Miao persuaded him that it was all right.

Xu Hongchang gently put the brush washer on the table, and slowly closed the lid.

I saw that the pure white brush wash seemed to have taken off a layer of gauze, and it was bright and clean, shining brightly.

"Wow..." Chen Wei couldn't help but marvel when he saw this, "So this brush is so beautiful."

Pei Miao also nodded in surprise and said, "It's really completely different from just now, this method of concealment is really amazing."

"It really is Ding Kiln." Xu Hongchang said excitedly, "Pei Miao, you are so amazing that you actually picked up another big leak. This Ding Kiln white glaze cloud pattern brush washer is so well preserved, it is unprecedented. No, if it goes up for auction, there will be no problem at all if it sells for 5000 million yuan!"

"Wow, 5000 million, such an exaggeration!" Pei Miao tried her best to look like she had never seen the world.

Xu Hongchang smiled and said: "This is Ding Kiln, one of the six famous kilns in the Song Dynasty. Although Ding Kiln is not as good as Ru Kiln, it is not easily comparable to other porcelains. Today's competition, we will definitely win! Haha! "