Chapter 64 Moving
What is metal lacquer?
The glue and lacquer specifically used for repairing blue and white porcelain and cloisonné enamelware came from the miscellaneous work of the Imperial Household Department. The craftsmen who specialized in repairing various items in the miscellaneous work were called mending craftsmen.
After Puyi abdicated, all the menders were dismissed. Some became folk craftsmen in Beijing and Tianjin, while others returned to their hometowns. Some took on apprentices to pass on their skills, while others set up their own businesses.
Among them were many renowned masters: such as Zhang the Bronze Master, Li the Porcelain Master, and Liu the Calligraphy and Painting Master…
It wasn't until the 1950s that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage established a cultural relics restoration department, recruiting these people, their descendants, and apprentices to carry out specialized restoration and protection of key cultural relics in cultural and museum institutions across the country.
These include the Forbidden City, the National Museum of China, the Terracotta Army, etc.
Subsequently, Northwest University took the lead in cooperating with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Shaanxi History Museum to create a course on cultural relic protection and restoration in 1985, and formally established the cultural relic protection major in 1989.
Because of their different focuses, Peking University started a little later, collaborating with the Palace Museum in 1993 to establish the cultural heritage conservation major, and it wasn't until 1998 that it was officially established.
The key point is that the traditional cultural relic protection and restoration techniques researched and taught at these two universities mostly come from these folk craftsmen. Therefore, Lin Sicheng's claim that Wang Qizhi was a disciple of "Ancient Bronze Zhang" and his grandfather was a disciple of "Colored Porcelain Li" is not far-fetched.
But the old lady didn't recognize it.
Why does she insist on acknowledging Lin Sicheng?
Because of the small amount of lacquer on his fingernails.
In the early years of the Republic of China, the lineage of this school of craftsmanship specializing in blue and white porcelain and Ming dynasty ceramics was completely severed. It wasn't until 2020, during the renovation of the former site of the Palace Museum's Imperial Workshops, that relevant technical documents were unearthed from underground.
Subsequently, the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage conducted their own research. The following year, in 2021, the relevant technological processes were included in textbooks at various universities.
But nowadays, it is a genuinely lost skill... Neither the Palace Museum nor the National Museum of China possesses it.
Imagine how excited the old lady would be when she saw that little bit of paint on Lin Sicheng's fingernail:
If you can mix lacquer, you can definitely mix glaze. If you can mix glaze, you can definitely refire. If you can refire, it means you can restore those two cups in the box to their original state... Who wouldn't be excited?
In this way, the logic is perfectly closed: that's why, as soon as they met, the old lady asked him if he wanted the ancient jade from his cane. And then she was so friendly, just like a long-lost grandmother seeing her grandson again.
So what's a three-million-yuan inkstone? In the old days, do you believe a metalworker would have asked her for half of it?
But that wasn't what Lin Sicheng was after; he just wanted to give it a try.
This is a chicken cup! If it can be repaired, believe me, its name could be in textbooks someday.
After thinking for a long time, Lin Sicheng sighed and pushed the box back: "Old man, I've never done this before, I need to practice when I get back!"
Of course I've never repaired it. Let alone repair it, who would dare say they've even seen it?
The old lady grinned, revealing her gums, and laughed again: "Yes, let's practice first, using this box of broken porcelain... If that's not enough, we'll find more..."
Lin Sicheng was taken aback: No wonder there was a Hongzhi Doucai and a Jiaohuang glaze.
Hongzhi doucai originated from Chenghua doucai, but its process is relatively more complex. Meanwhile, the delicate yellow glaze also originated from doucai porcelain, requiring even higher standards for glazing and temperature control.
If these two pieces can be repaired, then repairing the chicken cup will be a sure thing.
Lin Sicheng thought for a moment and nodded.
By this point, Lin Sicheng had lost all interest in looking at anything. And what could possibly compare to the chicken cup?
He got up to leave, and Zhao Xiuneng called out his two sons to carry the box of porcelain shards to his car.
The old lady asked him to take the inkstone with him, but Lin Sicheng refused, saying he would take it after the cup was repaired.
The family of five personally escorted him to the door. Just before he got into the car, Lin Sicheng hesitated, then the old lady smiled and said, "Child, I understand!"
Good that you understand.
Lin Sicheng got into the car and waved to the old lady again.
As the SUV turned out of the village and drove away, the old woman smiled silently, revealing her gums.
Zhao Xiuneng stood behind her, his eyes filled with suspicion: "Mother, this is too much of a coincidence... Could this group of people be setting up a trap?"
No wonder he was suspicious: his mother had gone to great lengths, tried every possible method, and searched for decades without success. Then suddenly, one day, it was as if the person had fallen from the sky?
Not only is he young, but he also seems to know everything. It's like there's nothing he can't do: appraisal, incision (jargon), hidden treasure hunting, restoration... Don't even mention being twenty, he wouldn't have learned so much even at sixty.
The key is that he has a very sharp eye: he only looked at the chicken fat bowl first, but he also handled each of the six pieces that were brought up later, only once.
He'd been dissecting things for forty years, meticulously crafting indistinguishable replicas. He'd sold items worth tens of thousands, if not tens of thousands. It wasn't that he'd never been caught red-handed, but when had he ever reached the point where someone could see right through him at a glance?
Therefore, the more Zhao Xiuneng thought about it, the more he felt that this group of people had deliberately set a trap.
The old lady shook her head: "Who knew we had cups?"
Zhao Xiuneng choked and couldn't speak: Let alone the chicken cup, the only people who knew that the family had a Chengni inkstone and a Shangfang jade cup were him and his mother. Even his wife and son didn't know.
If you don't know, then what's the point of setting up a scheme?
After thinking for a long time, Zhao Xiuneng gritted his teeth and said, "This is too strange!"
The old lady smiled and said: "It's precisely because it's so strange that it doesn't look like one."
The person who orchestrated this wouldn't be that young: twenty years old. At that age, most city kids are still in school.
Moreover, those who orchestrated the scheme wouldn't be so surprised:
The first time I saw her face and hands. The second time, I saw the jade on her cane. The third time, I saw the six pieces the eldest brother had repaired. The fourth time, I saw the chicken…
The old woman had lived to be eighty and had seen more people than objects. Whether the doll was genuinely surprised or feigning it, she was certain she couldn't be mistaken.
Furthermore, the person setting the trap will definitely use bait: both sides understand that the inkstone is equivalent to a deposit. If you don't even dare to ask for a deposit, how can you expect me to believe you truly have the skill?
If you don't even put bait on the hook, what if the fish gets away?
But all of that is secondary. The most important thing is the paint on the nails and the blue scent on the doll.
How many times did you order it, five or six times?
Based on this alone, I'd be willing to take a gamble...
The old woman turned around, her cane tapping crisply on the tiles. Zhao Xiuneng followed closely behind, carefully protecting her.
"Did you save that kid's phone number?"
"Saved!"
"Good that you've saved it all. Now, tell your wife and kids to pack their things and move!"
What's this? Moving house?
Zhao Xiuneng was stunned: "Huh?"
"What do you mean, 'huh'?" The old lady tapped her cane. "You're always so slow and clueless!"
After being scolded by his mother, Zhao Xiuneng finally realized what was going on. As he was leaving, the little brat seemed to want to say something but then stopped. What did his mother mean by saying "I understand"?
As the old saying goes, "Don't flaunt your wealth." Now that you've revealed it, aren't you just waiting for thieves to come knocking on your door if you don't move?
The reason why I moved back to my old house from Beijing two years ago was because the excavation of the Zhougong Temple nearby involved experts from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as professors from the National Museum of China and Peking University.
My mother has been hoping to find someone skilled enough to repair these two cups. Even finding some clues about the lineage of Ming dynasty porcelain menders would be helpful.
But after living there for two years, I didn't get a single thing out of him, and then someone just fell from the sky?
He nodded hurriedly: "Okay, I'll listen to you, Mother: let's move!"
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