Yang Jing collected seven single pots at Master Pei's house. Although the number is not as many as the purple clay pots he collected at Master Zhu's house, these seven single pots can be said to be the meticulous work of Master Pei during his lifetime. Any one of them is an absolute masterpiece and has great collection value.
Of course, the price Yang Jing paid for the work was the same as the price he paid for Master Zhu's work, which was 300 yuan per piece. This price also made Master Pei's eldest son particularly happy.
In fact, in the early 1980s, even the works of Master Gu Jingzhou, a leading figure in the current purple clay art world, were only 200 yuan a piece. If the quality of the pieces was average, they could not even be sold for 200 yuan.
And the most important thing is that even at this price, there are very few people who can buy a large number of them at one time in this era. For example, the overseas Chinese who just returned to China can take out more than 2,000 yuan at once to buy seven single pots for his own home. This was simply unimaginable before.
Others may not know, but Master Pei's eldest son knows his family's situation best. Although his late father was very famous, in the six years since his death, the family has only sold five pots in total, an average of less than one pot per year.
If it weren’t for this young returned overseas Chinese, it would be hard to say when these seven pots made by my father would be sold.
The price of three hundred is a win-win for everyone.
Yang Jing carefully placed the seven packaged boxes into the bed of the tricycle, then pulled Grandpa Zhu forward.
The next target is naturally Master Gu Jingzhou’s home.
Master Zhu and Master Gu can be said to be close friends. They are fellow villagers from the same street. Although Master Zhu is more than ten years older than Master Gu, this does not affect their friendship.
Especially after liberation, the Seven Masters of Zisha responded to the call of the country and established the Shushan Ceramics Production Cooperative, and the two good friends became colleagues directly. Especially as the other four of the Seven Masters of Zisha passed away one after another, the friendship between the remaining ones became even more precious.
As for Yang Jing, of course he also wanted to see with his own eyes Gu Jingzhou, the master-level figure in the purple clay art world. Yang Jing himself felt deeply honored to be able to meet such a true master.
But unfortunately, Yang Jing's wish was not fulfilled, because when Yang Jing took Mr. Zhu to Master Gu's residence, he learned that Mr. Zhu had gone to the province for a meeting.
You should know that Master Gu is not yet 70 years old this year. Although he has not yet served as the director of the Yixing Zisha Research Institute, he is already a national-level arts and crafts artist. Compared with the other six of the Seven Masters of Zisha, except for Master Jiang Rong who is a little younger than Master Gu, the other five masters are much older than Master Gu, and four of them have passed away.
Therefore, as a leading figure in the Yixing purple clay industry, Master Gu usually has a lot of things to do. For example, he went to the province for a meeting with his eldest apprentice, Master Xu Hantang, two days ago, and they have not returned yet.
Master Gu was not there, which made Yang Jing very disappointed, but because of the presence of Mr. Zhu, the purpose of Yang Jing's trip was not in vain.
As a good friend of Master Gu, Master Zhu felt like he was at home when he visited Master Gu's house. Master Zhu knew all the purple clay teapots in Master Gu's house and knew which ones could be sold and which ones could not.
The two masters lived not far from each other, and whenever they had nothing to do, they would get together to chat and discuss, so they knew each other's ideas and works very well.
Making a purple clay teapot is a very laborious task, and of course, it also costs a certain amount of money. These masters are not immortal gods who do not care about worldly matters. They also need to eat, drink, defecate, urinate, and sleep, so they naturally need a certain amount of money to maintain their lives and careers.
Therefore, masters usually sell their works to the outside world. Of course, this situation mostly happened in recent years. In that period of buzzing, no one dared to sell purple clay teapots privately, because they would be regarded as capitalist tails and cut off...
Although he did not meet the master Gu he admired, Yang Jing also gained a lot from his stay at Gu's house. Under the instruction of Master Zhu, Yang Jing spent 3,000 yuan to buy ten sets of Gu's works.
Among these ten sets of pots, four are complete sets and six are single pots.
The set with the most pieces among these four sets of purple clay teapots is a set of eleven pieces, which consists of a pot, five teacups and five cup holders, a total of eleven pieces.
"Old Gu made several sets of this set of teapots in the past. Originally, this set of teapots was the result of more than 20 years of careful consideration between Old Gu and Professor Gao Zhuang. The first set was very popular after it was made, so Old Gu later made several sets to give to his friends. Now he has two sets left. I will sell one set to you." Master Zhu explained to Yang Jing on the side.
This is not a random statement. For works like this from purple clay masters, after they design and produce a set of works, as long as the response is good enough, these masters will often make a few more sets privately, which can be used either for collection or as gifts to friends.
Just like this set of Ti Bi pots, Master Gu would definitely not make only one set. Of course, Yang Jing didn’t know how many sets he made in total, but what is certain is that before the prices of Master Gu’s works began to soar, many people who had obtained a set of pots probably used them for themselves. If they were damaged during use, they would no longer be a complete set.
Yang Jing felt like he was dreaming that he could buy such a set of Ti-Bi pots for 300 yuan. You should know that there is only one set of Gu Jingzhou's Ti-Bi pots that has been preserved intact in later generations, and that is because the set of pots is collected in the Yixing Zisha Museum. Later, at the Poly 2011 Autumn Art Auction, the set of pots was sold at a sky-high price of 17.825 million yuan.
But now, you can buy such a set of pots for three hundred yuan, which is simply a huge leak.
Let’s put the issue of money aside for now. This is a set of Ti-Bi teapots made by Master Gu himself. After 30 years, it is the second complete set of Gu Jingzhou’s Ti-Bi teapots in the world. Its collection value is naturally self-evident.
In addition to this largest set of Ti Bi teapots, Yang Jing also obtained a set of Yun Jian Ru Yi three-headed teapots, one pot and two cups.
There is also a set of high-waisted, handle-bar, headless teapots, one pot, two cups and two trays.
The last set of purple clay teapots is a set of Rain and Dew Star Handle Nine-Head Teapot, one pot, four cups and four trays.
In later generations, I have only seen single-handled high-waisted handle pots and rain and star handle pots, and I have never seen a set.
As for the remaining six single pots, they were also carefully crafted by Master Gu, including a Ci Le pot, a diamond-shaped pot, a flat-bellied pot, an antique Ruyi pot, a melon-li pot and a very rare ink-clay Junyu pot.
These ten sets of teapots are all masterpieces of Master Gu. Among them, several single teapots are mostly antique imitations and are of great collection value.
Being able to buy these ten sets of teapots for 3,000 yuan, Yang Jing has nothing to say. If it were thirty years later, let alone 3,000 yuan, even if you were given 30 million, you would not be able to buy the set of Rain and Star Handle Nine-Head Teapot...
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