Collectors’ collection of ancient locks is not measured by quantity. China's ancient locks are made by handicrafts. The exquisite artistic shapes and profound folk cultural heritage behind them are one of the important reasons that attract collectors to collect them.
Some collectors have traveled all over the country, either to antique shops to buy ancient locks, or to border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities to study ancient locks. Some collectors have to buy back a lot of ancient locks of varying quality, and then go through the painful process of sorting out the gold.
The various shapes of ancient locks are dazzling, including strong round locks, semi-circular locks, rectangular locks, and octagonal white copper carved locks that are as soft as ancient rouge boxes, showing a beautiful streamlined style. The gourd lock is homophonic to "Fulu lock", which is full of meaning. The three-dimensional shapes of dogs, horses, monkeys, etc. in the zodiac locks are lifelike; among the animal locks, the shrimp-shaped lock is opened with a key hook, while the fish-shaped lock needs to be pushed open.
The shapes of ancient locks are mostly fish-shaped. It is said that fish never close their eyes at night, even when sleeping, they keep their eyes open. If you use the fish shape on the lock, you can watch the door for others. The smallest lock in the collection is less than 1.5 centimeters long and about 1.3 centimeters high. It is more practical than decorative. It was reluctantly parted with a valuable mahogany small piece. His five-piece series of cylindrical locks come in different sizes. Among them, the largest lock is 40 centimeters high and 11 centimeters in circumference, which he gradually collected.
In addition to exquisite patterns, ancient locks also have straightforward text. Carving words written in cursive script, official script, large seal script, and small seal script on the front, side, and even keys of the lock has the charm of ancient calligraphy. The cultural connotation of ancient locks adds auspicious folk color to the originally hard metal. When the bride gets married, she should use the "Twelve Zodiac" locks on her dowry box and hang an auspicious lock around her neck; she should use the "Fu Lu Shou Xi" lock on her birthday banquet; and a child would use a longevity lock on his or her birthday.