Chapter 29: If Not You, Then Who

  The Qinghua glaze inside the red peony sawtooth pattern bell-shaped vase, when it comes to this "vase", many modern people may not know what kind of vessel it is. To put it bluntly, the shape of the bell-shaped vase is roughly similar to some wine bottles.

  However, the neck of the Hu is very long and almost takes up half of the height of the whole vessel, just like a wine bottle with a neck that is half as long as its body.

  To modern people who don't understand ancient utensils, it's very likely that they would mistake it for a wine bottle.

  The bell-shaped mouth is open, the neck is long and slender, the shoulders are narrow, the abdomen is shrunk, the foot ring is shallow, the body is dense and sturdy, the glaze surface is pure and bright, like a snow-white water powder. The bottom is inscribed with the regular script "Daqing Kangxi Nian Zhi" (Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty). The red color in the glaze is pure and stable, bright and lustrous, the pattern is sparse and elegant, the lines are fine and clear, matching well with the blue and white decoration, harmonious and pleasing to the eye. This is a masterpiece among the official kiln porcelain of the Kangxi period, and also one of the representative works of the entire Kangxi era.

  Again, Zhou Minglu carefully examined the bell in his hand, and the more he looked at it, the more excited he became, but also the more regretful.

  It's true, this bell-shaped vase is a genuine article, a real Qinghua glaze red peony pattern sawtooth edge bell-shaped vase made during the Kangxi period. This makes him excited beyond words, to be able to see such a precious ceramic piece, representing the highest level of ceramic craftsmanship in all of China during the Kangxi period. It's truly an exhilarating experience.

  But this porcelain is obviously a broken piece, shattered into more than ten pieces, and then re-stuck together, which undoubtedly makes this fine porcelain fall to countless levels.

  However, even if it was just a fragment, Zhou Ming had thoroughly moved his heart. If he had the ability, he really wouldn't mind taking down this fragment.

  Broken pieces are also valuable, don't think that a piece of porcelain is broken and can only be thrown away as rubbish. If it's really good porcelain, even the fragments can sell for a pretty penny.

  For example, a piece of broken porcelain from Yuan Qinghua, even if it's only the size of an egg, can sell for thousands of yuan, making it more valuable than some intact Qing dynasty porcelain. Of course, this is also because Yuan Qinghua itself is extremely valuable.

  The value of a shard is mainly determined by whether it has representativeness, such as obvious age characteristics, and secondly its rarity.

  The value of ceramic pieces from different parts is also completely unequal.

  Even a single shard of porcelain can be valuable, let alone this complete piece in front of us.

  Even if the broken pieces are sold separately, it is estimated that the base with the "Qing Kangxi year" mark can sell for tens of thousands of yuan. Other parts are also worth thousands to tens of thousands of yuan. The 1-2 million yuan in Zhou Ming's hands would probably be enough to buy these individual fragments separately.

  It's still better to buy them separately, not to mention that all the fragments of this bell have been reassembled into a complete whole now. Even if its value has decreased by a lot, if the stall owner is knowledgeable, you won't be able to take it away for less than several hundred thousand.

  But at this moment, Zhou Ming Luo was really somewhat excited, and more or less judged that the master of this stall was 90% an outsider, or a newcomer who had just entered the profession.

  Because the crack on this bell is too obvious, it was broken into more than a dozen pieces and then repaired and glued together. If the other party really knew the value of this bell, they would not have used such a rough repair method.

  If he is an insider, knowing that this is a bell tower, it would be even more impossible to simply put it on the ground stall. To know that the complete bell tower is a treasure worth 30 or 40 million, which sensible person would use garlic juice and other primitive methods to casually stick together the intact fragments and sell them on the ground stall?

  But perhaps it is precisely because of this that the wind chime has been placed here for a period of time, and no one has taken it away. Of course, another reason why it hasn't been sold yet may be due to the current time, which is only around 2 pm, still during lunchtime, and there are not many pedestrians in the entire antique city.

  "He's ninety percent unlikely to recognize this as a genuine Kangxi Yohai zun, and might have picked up a fake."

  Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Zhou Ming finally carefully put down the rattle cup in his hand and turned to look at the stall owner, "Boss, how much is this broken vase?"

  As he spoke, the young stall owner couldn't help but glance at Zhou Mingluo with some surprise, and even handed him a cigarette from his pocket. "I'm telling you, brother, are you really planning to buy this broken vase?"

  The bottle was broken and anyone could see it at a glance. The stall owner wouldn't lie, but he suspected why the other person had taken a fancy to this broken bottle.

  Does the picture look good? Although the Yinzhen vase is beautiful, there are many more beautiful porcelain pieces in the entire antique market. A normal person would never fall for a broken bottle, unless this bottle itself is very valuable?

  Although Zhou Ming Luo didn't usually smoke, he still accepted the cigarette from the other person and calmly nodded, "This vase has been broken once, it looks like someone intentionally smashed it, but fortunately it's still intact. It looks very beautiful, with a kind of pathological beauty. I'm studying art, specifically researching pathological beauty, this vase catches my eye. If the price is right, I plan to buy it and play with it."

  The Rattle Vase is indeed beautiful, and although it has a clear black crack on its snow-white body, it's not ugly, but rather a kind of pathological beauty that is also a pursuit of art. The ancient Chinese pursued the ultimate in pathological beauty, with many examples, the most famous being women binding their feet to create three-inch golden lotuses.

  And the most famous foreign statue is probably the armless Venus de Milo.

  Of course, Zhou Ming was just making excuses for himself. He wasn't pursuing some kind of morbid beauty, but rather finding a suitable reason for himself. If he didn't have a suitable reason, buying this bottle would easily arouse the young boss's vigilance and even suspicion.

  Also with this sentence, the young stall owner was suddenly stunned, and the cigarette that had just been lit was forgotten to be smoked, only sandwiched in his mouth, quite speechless, "Pathological beauty?"

  He seemed to be stunned by this word, and he stared at Zhou Mingluo for a few more seconds. Is she studying art? Taking a closer look, Zhou Mingluo was indeed quite elegant.

  In fact, he had already noticed that Zhou Ming was gone. After all, he had been setting up his stall for an hour or two, and it was just noon when he came over. The broken porcelain on the stall had hardly attracted anyone's attention. If a normal person saw the broken porcelain, they would rarely pick it up to take a closer look.

  After Zhou Ming put it down, he picked up the porcelain and turned it over for several minutes, and he couldn't help but notice.

  He was stunned for over ten seconds before the young man suddenly laughed, "I'm saying, bro, what's this 'pathological beauty' thing? I really didn't know about it before, can you tell me about it?"

  "Dizzy......" He was just making an excuse, but unexpectedly the other person actually took an interest in his sickly beauty? However, he still explained a bit afterwards, and after chatting for a few minutes, Zhou Ming Luo asked about the price again.

  "This time the young man laughed and said, 'You artists are really weird, even a sickly appearance can be pursued to beauty, huh? However, I do know that there is a famous sculpture abroad, it's just an arm. Since that's the case, I won't charge you much for this vase either, give me 5,000 yuan.'"

  In the midst of laughter, the young man's heart was also secretly delighted. This group of foolish birds playing with art has gone crazy, and even pathology can be pursued to create beauty. He was still worried that the rotten vase he bought for 100 yuan from the suburbs yesterday was a waste of money, but it just so happened that he ran into an artistic fool who pursues pathological beauty. Who else would he cheat if not him?

  This guy is even more foolish and actually explained to him what pathological beauty is, which coincidentally gave him a better reason to sell this rotten vase.

  Right after the young man took a drag on his cigarette, he pointed at the vase and said, "Brother, look, just like you said earlier, this vase may be broken, but these cracks are really... well, they have a kind of sick beauty. I'm not cheating you, this vase was really good stuff before it broke, it's got an official Kangxi mark on the bottom, Kangxi imperial kiln, you know? That's the real deal, if it wasn't broken, I wouldn't sell it for 50 million, let alone 5,000..."