I am doing well in the Siheyuan

Ye Ming politely invited Uncle Guan to express his opinion.

"Then I won't be shy. I'll mainly look at it from three aspects: the decorative style, the use of lines, and the color matching."

Uncle Guan expressed his views slowly and calmly.

“What good eyesight!”

After listening to Mr. Guan’s analysis, the experts next to him couldn’t help but nod in praise.

Patterns are an indispensable mark on Yuan blue and white porcelain, including ruyi cloud head patterns, dragon patterns, and coiled pattern borders. Each type has unique application and stroke techniques. Any subtle error may become a key clue to identify authenticity.

Lines are related to the shape of the rim and foot of the vessel. Nowadays, the norm for porcelain production is three parts throwing and seven parts trimming. In other words, the shape of the vessel mainly depends on fine finishing in the later stage.

However, in the Yuan Dynasty craftsmanship, the opposite was true, following the principle of 70% throwing and 30% repairing.

The blue pigment used in ancient times was called "Subuni blue", a natural mineral pigment.

If it were not for this kind of imported blue material, domestic blue materials would often appear bright or dull in color, making it difficult to achieve the ideal effect.

These three points show that Uncle Guan has profound attainments in the field of antique appreciation.

During a special period in his early years, in order to protect his family collection, the old man used unique skills to imitate a batch of fake antiques, among which the high-end imitation technology was first-class, and he was an expert in this area.

"Such a high-quality imitation of Yuan blue and white porcelain is indeed rare, but in addition to the doubts mentioned by the previous two, the soil stains and traces of aging on the sand bottom are also very obvious." Ye Ming added after the others finished speaking.

The inner walls of Yuan Dynasty porcelain are mostly covered with glaze, and the glaze layer is extremely thin. The bamboo brush marks are easily eroded by soil. Therefore, whether the soil stains are naturally distributed and logical is an important basis for judging authenticity.

At the same time, the body of Yuan porcelain is not as finely refined as that of Ming and Qing porcelain, so the sand bottom often has sand holes, brush marks and iron spots, and flint red is often seen at the bottom and rim where the glaze shrinks and the body is exposed.

The essential difference between artificial aging and the natural aging appearance of ancient ceramics makes identifying aging both the most basic and the most difficult part, because counterfeiters may adopt various unexpected methods to disguise themselves.

"There are so many details to a piece of Yuan blue and white porcelain!" Someone in the crowd couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"It's a very profound knowledge. I remember Ye Ming once said something like keeping up with the times! Their counterfeiting techniques are constantly improving, and our identification methods cannot stand still." Hou Polan opened up when he talked about professional knowledge.

"Okay, let's talk about these later. The key is how to deal with this Yuan blue and white porcelain." Uncle Guan timely led the topic to the core issue.

They can see the problems with this Yuan blue and white porcelain, but it is not easy for ordinary collectors.

"After all, someone sent it for appraisal. We can only issue an appraisal certificate and return the original item. But don't worry, I will find out its source." Ye Ming already had a plan in mind.

The value of Yuan blue and white porcelain is there, and once it is involved in a transaction, there will inevitably be no news at all.

There must be a professional counterfeiting team behind the scenes who can imitate such exquisite Yuan blue and white porcelain.

"Let's wait and see if anyone is willing to take the bait!" Uncle Guan nodded in agreement. As long as Ye Ming kept a close eye on the matter, he would feel at ease.

On the other hand, after Li Huaide and his two companions sent the Yuan blue and white porcelain to the appraisal agency, they were so excited that they could not sleep all night.

The next afternoon, they got the identification results.

Li Huaide couldn't wait to read the report. Although the professional data was obscure and difficult to understand, he went straight to the conclusion.

But when he saw the result, his face was full of disappointment.

Then he handed the report to Xu Damao reluctantly.

Xu Damao was also stunned after reading it. The report clearly stated that this piece of Yuan blue and white porcelain was a work of art.

Liu Haizhong guessed the result from their expressions and sighed regretfully: "What a pity!"

Fakes are fakes after all, and the appraisal agency actually found three flaws.

Li Huaide made a prompt decision and decided not to reveal the result to Cheng Jianjun for the time being so as not to upset him.

For the auction house, this was just a harmless test.

He quickly began to prepare for the auction. Seventy percent of the items he selected were authentic and thirty percent were fake. After careful preparation, Li Huaide sent people to distribute flyers for the first auction of Foley Auction House. The flyers listed the items to be auctioned, the most eye-catching of which was the Yuan blue and white porcelain. This news caused quite a stir in the antique circle of Beijing.

Ye Ming also received the news at the first time and recognized the Yuan blue and white porcelain on the flyer at a glance.

He learned that the boss behind the Foley Auction House was Li Huaide.

Ye Ming was not idle. He began to investigate whether this Yuan blue and white porcelain was made by Li Huaide.

Although Ye Ming was not too worried about the result of this auction, after all, although Foley Auction House had certain qualifications, it was not an official authoritative appraisal agency. Even if it had appraisers recognized by the industry, omissions were inevitable.

Compared with Nagasawa Auction House, Foley is clearly inferior in terms of security reputation.

In addition, Yuan blue and white porcelain itself is very valuable and is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Although many wealthy new rich people have flocked to Beijing recently, those who can afford to buy Yuan blue and white porcelain are rare after all.

Buyers of this level will certainly conduct a thorough investigation into the background of the auction house.

No matter how the authenticity is judged, this Yuan blue and white porcelain is unlikely to escape the fate of being unsold.

Time flies, and the day for the auction held by Foley Auction House has arrived as scheduled.

The vigorous publicity in recent days has undoubtedly created enough momentum for this auction.

The Yuan blue and white porcelain, as the highlight, has attracted close attention from many antique collectors.

There was a constant stream of bidders participating in the auction.

Li Huaide was quite happy about this, but it was embarrassing that only a few of the business celebrities who were invited showed up.

Most of the people present were just ordinary people who came to join in the fun and did not have real purchasing power.

At this point, Li Huaide had no choice but to go ahead with the auction.

Fortunately, people have a strong passion for collecting antiques, and the starting price of antiques at the auction is much more favorable than the market price, which quickly attracted the interest of many people.

"Is this true? How can antiques be so cheap?"

"A starting price of 100,000 is still considered cheap?!"

“Similar plates on the market cost close to two hundred thousand!”

“Could it be a fake?”

"Don't make random guesses, this is a formal auction house with an appraisal certificate.

Besides, it is clearly stated on their brochure that the appraisal team includes many industry experts. I have inquired and found that several of them are professors in the history department of Yenching College and have worked in the Cultural Relics Bureau. How could they possibly produce a fake product? "

"Yes, there is an appraisal certificate. I guess they want to make a name for themselves in this first auction!"

"That's possible."

The atmosphere at the auction site gradually heated up, and the Foley Auction House was bustling with people.

Many people present had never been to Nagasawa Auction House, and today's visit to Foley was an eye-opener.