Grandpa slowly took off his reading glasses, touched the frame of the painting with his hand, and said with a smile on his face: "Good painting, good painting! Great things to open the door, it is indeed a good painting by Wang Shishen."
The shop owner had a pretty good eye. He could tell that my grandfather was pushed in by Yang Jing and my uncle. It was obvious that the three of them were led by this old man.
The shop owner smiled, bent down and said to the old man: "Old man, I have to say that you have a good vision!" The shop owner gave him a thumbs up again.
When grandpa was praised, he laughed like a child.
My uncle lowered his head and asked my grandfather, "Dad, do you like this painting?"
The old man nodded, but then shook his head and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this painting should be the original work of Wang Shishen. I have seen many paintings about plum blossoms, but Wang Shishen is the most elegant and lively. This painting is very good, I like it very much, but I can't afford it. Considering the size of this painting, it is estimated to cost at least 300,000 now. Xiaolong, forget it, I don't want this painting, I will be satisfied after seeing it."
When the shop owner heard what the old man said, his face turned grim and he muttered in a low voice: "Old man, this painting is worth more than 300,000 yuan. It's worth at least 1 million yuan now."
Yang Jing pulled the shop owner and whispered, "My grandfather had a craniotomy seven years ago. He can't remember anything after the surgery, but he can still remember everything before the surgery. The price he mentioned must be the price in 2010 at the very least."
When the boss heard this, his expression became a little better, and he whispered, "Did the old man ever have this disease?"
Yang Jing nodded and made an expression that said "please forgive me".
My uncle asked the shop owner: "What is the lowest price for this painting?"
The shop owner looked at the old man, then at the painting, gritted his teeth and said, "The size of this painting is 104*48.5 cm, which is considered to be above average among Wang Shishen's paintings. If you really want it, you can take it for one million. I won't sell it for less than that."
Yang Jing nodded slightly at the price. Wang Shishen's paintings are increasing in value at a relatively fast rate. In the 2013 Poly Hong Kong Spring Auction, there was a painting of Wang Shishen, "Camellia and Orchid", which was 88.5*29 cm in size, smaller than this painting, and it was sold at a high price of 1.84 million Hong Kong dollars.
At the same year's Poly Auction Autumn Auction, a painting by Wang Shishen called "Proud Plum Blossoms" which was about the same size as this one was sold for 1.01 million yuan.
If it were now, Wang Shishen's paintings would definitely be able to fetch a higher price.
Of course, that was the price paid at the auction. The actual price of Wang Shishen's paintings should be lower than the auction price.
Wang Shishen's paintings of plum blossoms can definitely be ranked among the top five masters in Chinese history. Logically, the prices of his plum blossom paintings should be even higher, but Wang Shishen made a living by selling paintings all his life, and he left behind many works after his death. Therefore, although his paintings are recognized as good paintings in the industry, they have never been sold at high prices.
To be fair, the price offered by the shop owner now is one million, which is really not high. After all, this is an authentic work of Wang Shishen.
Although the old man was hard of hearing, he heard what the boss said and he immediately became unhappy.
"What? One million? How come Wang Shishen's paintings are so valuable now? Two months ago, I saw a painting of Wang Shishen's "Ink Orchid" at an old friend's place. The size of the painting is much larger than this one, but my old friend only spent 460,000 yuan on that painting. Boss, your price is too high..."
Yang Jing and his uncle looked at each other and smiled helplessly. Needless to say, the old man was bringing his memories from seven years ago to the present.
Fortunately, Yang Jing had just explained this to the store owner, and the store owner didn't care. Otherwise, with the old man's bargaining method, the store owner would definitely kick the three of them out.
Yang Jing was just about to bargain again when the old man suddenly got angry.
"No, we don't want this painting anymore. Our family can't afford it! Xiaolong, push me out for a walk."
At this time, the old man is like a child who is in a tantrum. Old children are old children. Once they get angry, you have to obey their wishes, otherwise the old man will really throw his wheelchair and walk back by himself.
The uncle gave the shop owner an apologetic smile and pushed the old man out. Yang Jing planned to stay and explain things to the boss further.
The boss was not a fool. He knew that the old man was ill. He didn't wait for Yang Jing to explain. He just smiled and waved his hand and said, "I understand, little brother. In fact, my old man was like this when he had Alzheimer's disease. Forget it, let's leave it as it is."
Yang Jing helped the boss hang the painting up again, and then said, "Boss, let me take a look at your paintings again, and I'll buy one if I like it."
The boss nodded disinterestedly, pointed over there and said, "There are a few rare ancient books in my collection over there, you can go and have a look. As for the four treasures of the study, I also collected two fine Hu brushes and two pieces of genuine Daqian paper. If you like any of them, I can give you a discount."
Yang Jing nodded and walked over.
After looking at the Hu brushes collected by the shop owner and the two Daqian paper samples, Yang Jing nodded slightly. The things were indeed good, but Yang Jing was not very fond of collecting things like the four treasures of the study. Moreover, although the things collected by the shop owner were of good quality, their collection value was not very high.
Yang Jing had no interest in collecting such things, so he moved over to the ancient books protected by the glass cabinet.
The shop owner had a total of seven ancient books in his collection. Yang Jing took a look and said to the shop owner, "Boss, can you take out this book and let me have a look?"
Seeing Yang Jing take out a pair of white gloves from his pocket and put them on, the shop owner hesitated for a moment, then opened the cabinet and took out the book that Yang Jing pointed to.
Carefully placing the book on the counter, the shop owner said, "Little brother, you have to be careful. Although this book is not a precious Song Dynasty edition book, it is also a book from the Kangxi period. It may not be very expensive, but I spent a lot of effort to collect this book."
Hearing what the boss said, Yang Jing nodded and said, "Don't worry, boss. We are all in the same industry, and I know all these rules. Regardless of whether they are Song edition books, Ming edition books, or Qing edition books, regardless of whether they are valuable or not, they are all treasures left by our ancestors. We cannot let our ancestors down."
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