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The most important prerequisite for collecting antiques is to identify the authenticity of the new (present) and the old (ancient), that is, people often say that they should have an antique eye. For ordinary collectors, the current antique appraisal methods, whether unearthed or handed down from generation to generation, still rely on "eyes" to observe. Just as the amount of information and data stored in the computer information database will directly affect the conclusion of the analysis, the number of antique objects you have seen will also be stored in your memory, forming your experience in identifying authenticity and dating. Therefore, eyesight and knowledge often become one of the important standards to measure the "professional level" of antique collectors or enthusiasts. Therefore, knowledgeable people can only be recognized and recognized if they have seen them, and it is strange if they are less.
There are many ways to "look", such as looking at various color-printed realistic pictures, visiting museums and surfing the Internet, which are indirect views. Visiting the market, inspecting the kiln site, and looking at each other's collections among Tibetan friends are all direct views. The former is still like the moon in the water and the flower in the mirror, which is beyond our reach and plays an auxiliary role in improving the identification level. The latter is the skin cutting test of eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hands, which plays a leading role in improving the identification level. The impression of the former is different from the experience of the latter, but I pay more attention to the impression of the latter.
How to identify antiques
As the saying goes: "Gold is hidden in troubled times, and gold is collected in prosperous times." In recent years, with the continuous improvement of people's living standards, antique collection has aroused people's strong interest. However, the biggest headache for collectors is that antiques on the market are often difficult to distinguish between true and false, and some even squander the huge sums accumulated over the years.
According to provincial experts on cultural relics, a considerable number of antiques circulating in the cultural relics market are fakes. Antique collectors will inevitably be cheated if they lack the necessary knowledge. So, how can we put our minds right and enjoy the antique market without being cheated? A few days ago, the reporter made an inquiry-
"Antique" and "fake" are two different things.
At the beginning of March, the reporter visited several famous cultural experts in the province. When it comes to antique counterfeiting, experts have always believed that we should first distinguish the similarities and differences between antiques and fakes.
The so-called antique refers to the variety imitated by later generations by imitating the famous products of the previous generation. There are two reasons for archaizing: First, in order to absorb the advantages of the previous generation and others, such as the five famous kilns of Ding, Ru, Guan, Ge and Jun in the Song Dynasty, there were imitations of other kilns at that time, although they were fine and coarse, they could also be popular all over the world. The second is to worship the ancients, that is, to respect and admire the ancients. There has been a fashion of imitating antiques since ancient times.
Counterfeits generally appear in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, that is, they are reprocessed on the basis of the original antique treasures, and pass off as genuine products by adding color, adding new year's money, grinding the bottom, reorganizing and making old ones. This kind of forgery for the purpose of pursuing pure commercial profits has long been divorced from antiques, that is, counterfeiting.
Experts believe that although antique products and fakes are not genuine, their values are quite different. Take an imitation Xuande furnace in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty as an example. Although it is not as valuable as the original Xuande furnace, it still has great collection value. The value of modern imitation "Xuande Furnace" is of course greatly reduced.
In order to facilitate reading, the reporter deliberately divided the antique collections into four categories and invited experts to comment on them one by one, hoping to sound the alarm for the majority of collectors.
One of the secrets: imitation porcelain is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
There are many ways to forge porcelain, which makes collectors hard to prevent. Mr. Jia, who has been engaged in the collection industry for ten years, told reporters in detail about the joints. He paid a lot of tuition to collect porcelain. According to Lao Jia's experience and the analysis of provincial cultural relics experts, the reporter roughly divided porcelain fraud into several categories.
1, the new porcelain old man Lao Jia was fooled for the first time and bought this fake at a high price. Old Jia, who had little experience at that time, found a blue-and-white porcelain bottle in the North Antique Market. Because he is sure that the shovel on the bottle (the metal two-legged nail used to connect the utensils) belongs to the Yuan Dynasty, he thinks that the bottle belongs to the Yuan Dynasty, too. Later, experts were asked to identify it and it was found to be a fake.
Expert analysis: It is a common counterfeiting technique to break the newly made porcelain with an ancient shovel and connect the pieces together. General collectors determine the age of shovels and infer the age of porcelain accordingly, so they are taken in by imitators. Because it is easy to copy, the shovel of the Ming Dynasty can be sold for several hundred yuan on the market now.
In the fourth year of collecting new porcelain, Lao Jia and several friends went to the countryside to "treasure hunt". The local people showed a porcelain bowl with a tribute at the bottom. "I think the signature is very similar to that of Jianzhou Kiln in Song Dynasty. I thought it was more collectible, so I bought it. After coming back, I studied it carefully with my friends and found that there was a circle of glue at the bottom of the bowl, indicating that the bottom of the bowl was stuck! "
Expert analysis: this method is also very common, because it is difficult to copy the imprint on the bottom of porcelain, so some imitators cut off the old bottom from damaged or non-high economic value porcelain, spliced it with imitation porcelain blank, and burned it into new porcelain to sell to inexperienced people.
3. Add color "In 2003, I bought a colorful character vase from a friend in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Because the figure-patterned porcelain in Qing Dynasty was handed down from generation to generation, I spent a big price of five figures. Last year, the family was anxious to take the money to the auction house. People say it's fake and the characters are newly painted. "
Expert analysis: the methods of adding color are real tires and pseudo color, that is, painting the ancient plain porcelain without decorative patterns and re-firing it; Repair the damage and make it look brand-new, that is, the old broken porcelain bonding synthesizer is made by filling the cracked part with hard colored flowers to cover up the damage. However, not many people use this technology. First, it is easy to burn porcelain when reburning. Second, it is not easy to find old genuine plain porcelain.
4. High imitation porcelain
According to experts, the application of high-tech means to cultural relics fraud can make fraud reach its peak and become a system of its own. For example, using 3D scanning technology, the product is exactly the same as the original, and the application of silicone rubber turnover technology makes the pattern on the imitation the same as the original. In the face of such high imitation porcelain, even with a certain ability to distinguish, it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
The second secret: the calligraphy and painting market is mixed.
Masterpieces of ancient paintings have always been sought after by people, and they are also a good project to invest in artworks, and also the main goal of counterfeiters in past dynasties. The mixed calligraphy and painting market is not only a good place for collectors to collect Taobao, but also a paradise for counterfeiters.
Mr. Zhang has a strong interest in painting, because he likes to look everywhere, and some friends who like collecting have nicknamed him "painter". According to the former director of the Palace Museum, Mr. Zhang has hundreds of precious paintings and calligraphy, but some of them are fake.
The methods of calligraphy and painting forgery can be basically divided into two categories: one is complete forgery, that is, relying on the famous original works by means of hooking, filling and copying, and "creating" according to their brushwork and composition characteristics. This method has obvious defects, because it often exposes the style of forgers. But some people who are completely fabricated out of thin air pretend to be celebrities, regardless of their painting and calligraphy style, because they can't prove it, it is easy to deceive people. The second is to use the original painting itself to falsify. The original work will be transformed by means of digging, scraping, modifying, sealing, or dismantling and splitting, so as to pretend to be a masterpiece for profit. The technical treatment of this kind of fake is generally completed by the cooperation between the master craftsman and the painter or fake painter. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between true and false. For example, the panoramic screen is divided into a single frame and manually cut into several segments; Or from big to small, hash album pages, etc. In addition, there are some fake paintings made by high-tech means such as scanning, which are difficult to distinguish, but very rare in the market.
Secret 3: Forge ancient jade to fill in the blanks.
The formation and development of jade culture is one of the main features of the origin of Chinese civilization and one of the cornerstones of Chinese national culture. In the eyes of China people, jade is unique. It has gone beyond the category of pure taxonomy and become the spiritual sustenance of the Chinese nation. It is precisely because of this that the counterfeiters took a fancy to it and made a bad idea.
On the grounds of going to study, the reporter was introduced by a friend to a small courtyard in Huanggu District and met a master who "made" ancient jade. Although he seems to be in his thirties, people in the circle call him Uncle Guang.
It is said that Uncle Guang's "unique secret" is to make old. In the antique industry, the old and the fake are one thing, but the old technology content is much greater. Uncle Guang is famous in this field because of his professionalism and meticulous work. The probability of being deceived is the only criterion to test the ability of old work.
"This is a fish, I don't know anything. Please tell me more. " Xiao Pu, who brought the reporter, explained to Uncle Guang. Uncle Guang showed the reporter a Buddha's head on the table: "What's wrong?" "The sculptor is outstanding and charming, but at first glance it is a new work." The reporter was bold and told Uncle Guang what Xiao Pu had taught him. Uncle Guang seems quite proud: "Oh, you have a good eye. Look at this again. "
"Tang's?" "Five generations?" "Song's?" ..... See the reporter get confused, uncle light eyes lit up. "Little girl, just like that one, but it has been treated." Then, Uncle Guang talked about two main "making" methods of ancient jade, one is called "patina" and the other is called "Qin".
"patina" can be explained by a popular example. The wooden handle of a hoe that has been used for many years will form a layer of luster. This kind of luster is thick and natural, blending with the wooden handle and smooth as jade. This is "patina". "patina" can not be formed in a short time, nor can it be expressed by various paints and coatings. A century-old desk, old cupboard and old chair will have different degrees of patina in the parts that are often in contact with friction. If you want to have patina in your heart, you must keep touching it with your hands, and it will take at least two months to achieve the effect. "To tell you the truth, I will hug the Buddha head you just saw at night." Uncle Guang said mysteriously.
Qin is easier to understand. Some unearthed things will form soft mud in the years when they are buried underground. That is, the substances in the soil (including the substances contained in the water in the soil) will gradually penetrate into these things and form recognizable traces. Qin is divided into soil Qin, water Qin and blood Qin (the characteristics of objects in or beside coffins in ancient tombs). Even if there are no funerary objects, as long as you can go to that era, there will be soft mud left by the natural environment, and you can't see it at a glance without an expert. There are two main methods to imitate Qin: baking and using chemicals. For example, roast jade and put it in a reddish-brown solution to make fake soil ooze, burn it to make fake water ooze and so on.
Uncle Guang said that on the one hand, it depends on the knife work when making, on the other hand, it also depends on the corrosion degree of jade surface and the color of jade. Modern jades often pursue the effect of ancient jade, sometimes they are similar, but there are always differences. If you get an ancient jade, its color is different from the color of the standard works we know, then it is necessary to carefully analyze whether this color is the Qin color of the ancient jade we don't know, or whether it is artificially made, so as to judge the old and new works.
The fourth secret: fake bronzes are grand views.
2 1 century BC, in the slave society of Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze ritual vessels were a symbol of aristocratic status. For collectors, bronzes have always been the top priority. It is not uncommon for collectors to collect dozens of porcelain, wood, calligraphy and painting, but only a handful collect dozens of bronzes. With the deepening of people's understanding of bronzes, more and more people began to like bronzes. With the market, counterfeiters will take advantage of it.
The reporter interviewed Mr. Huang De, a bronze collector, on this issue. According to his years of collection experience, Mr. Huang summed up four ways to make bronzes:
Mosaic method uses acid to replace the newly made bronze ware with the old one, and then embeds the old rust scraped from the old one on the bronze ware. This method is very attractive to primary collectors who only consider the old rust and don't look at the shape of the vessel. Mosaic old rust is generally selected in the mouth edge, pattern, epidermis and other easily visible parts. This method of identifying the old is to identify the authenticity of the utensils as a whole, rather than just looking at the old rust. And as long as you play with it carefully, you will find that rust will naturally fall off, so it is easier to identify.
Later sculpture. An old object, with no ornamentation on it, was later carved with flowers, which were very detailed. The identification method of this kind of object is to see if there is patina and rust color in the tank. If it is newly carved, the patina in the tank will definitely be destroyed. In addition, the ornamentation of any period should have the shape of any period. For example, the Ding in Shang Dynasty is engraved with the ornamentation of the Warring States period, which must be from Dai Li, Zhang Guan.
Stump trimmer. In the market, we must pay attention to strange things, which may be pieced together by some remnants. For example, use the lower part to make a bowl; Change the basin into a knight. This method of counterfeiting is the most common in the market, so buyers must be careful when they encounter strange things.
The new tire stuck to the old tire. Make a new vessel, carve it from the old skin according to the pattern of the real vessel, and carve the same thing as the old bronze ware and stick it on the new vessel. Most of the works are high relief works. This kind of utensil depends on whether the rust color in the tire is the same as that in the outer skin.
Expert advice: treasure hunting should have a normal mind.
In view of how collectors should face the complicated antique market, provincial cultural relics experts suggest that collectors themselves should not be lucky, hoping to get rich overnight by collecting antiques, and even always want to get a bargain. Collection is an elegant thing, which cultivates temperament and sentiment, rather than blindly making profits, which also does not conform to the law of collection. And this kind of luck is to provide opportunities for counterfeiters.
In addition, there is still a big gap between the theoretical appraisal knowledge in books and the reality. Don't think that you can basically tell the truth from the false by reading some books that identify knowledge. First of all, the accuracy of the books you read is uncertain. Some books use fake photos, which will mislead readers. Secondly, if an antique has not been seen several times in person, there will always be a gap in perceptual knowledge, and it is easy to make a wrong judgment based on one-sided experience.