Needless to say, this boss has quite a lot of stuff on his stall.
Excluding those handicrafts that look fake at first glance, there are indeed many treasures that look more like the real thing.
For example, the piece of cat's eye stone Zhang Nuo is holding in his hand should be a cat's eye stone ring to be precise, which is a bit interesting.
Cat's Eye is a natural gemstone that is named after its ability to produce a concentrated reflection of light, creating a band of light that looks like a cat's eye.
Sometimes when the light shines directly and you turn the cat's eye stone with your hands, the cat's eyes inside will open and close, like a cat blinking, which is very beautiful.
The principle is that there are parallel "tubular" inclusions in natural cat's eye stone. This state will appear after it is cut and processed into a curved surface. This phenomenon is also called the cat's eye effect.
But it’s not cat’s eye that has the cat’s eye effect. There are many other gemstones in nature that also have the cat’s eye effect, such as beryl, apatite, and kyanite, so some businesses and bosses will use these gems to pass off as cat’s eye.
The first factor to identify cat's eye stone is to look at the color. Cat's eye stone is mainly yellow, ranging from light to dark, yellow-green, yellow-brown, and under extreme conditions, light blue cat's eye stone, but it is extremely rare and very expensive. So if you see green, red, or blue opal, don’t think too much, it must be fake.
The ring in Zhang Nuo's hand was yellow-brown. She could hold it in her hand and look at it for a long time. It must have the cat's eye effect. He Ren just wanted to open the treasure eye to look at it for Zhang Nuo, but found that it was not needed.
Because Zhang Nuo happened to pick up the ring and look at the sun again, He Ren saw the three stripes at a glance...
It is indeed cat's eye, but it is artificial cat's eye.
The most important way to judge whether a cat's eye stone is natural or artificial is to look at the "bright band" at the top. There is only one bright band on the natural one, but two or three of the artificial ones usually appear at the same time.
Then use a magnifying glass to look at both sides. The hexagonal honeycomb structure is artificially made. It is actually quite simple.
Artificial cat's eye stone is just a trick to the uninitiated or tourists. Some friends may ask, with the current technology, can't we create artificial gemstones that are the same as natural cat's eye stone?
It's possible, but it's not necessary.
Natural cat's eye stones of average quality only cost a few thousand yuan per carat. They are equipped with various high technologies, and the cost of research, materials and machinery are much higher than natural ones. It is better to import them from Sri Lanka...
Zhang Nuo obviously didn't realize that she was better at jade after all, and she happily brought it over to He Ren to admire.
As a result, before a smile appeared on the boss's face, He Ren said, "This ring is for men. It's not suitable for you. Don't you like crystal? I think that crystal cup is good."
Although Zhang Nuo was not good at appraising treasures, he was very smart. He immediately understood what He Ren meant, put down the cat's eye ring, and picked up the crystal cup not far away to observe.
This crystal cup is only a few centimeters high, a bit like the "crystal" tea set found in dollar stores.
At first glance, Zhang Nuo was a little unsure. Why did this crystal cup look a little dim? It seems like there are a lot of impurities. Could it be that too much lead was added when making it?
Artificial crystal glass really needs to be leaded, in order to increase its weight, make it more textured and more transparent when you pick it up. The disadvantage is that it is relatively soft and easily scratched.
Artificial crystal has been around since the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, so many old crystal cups are actually not natural and not valuable. Zhang Nuo feels that the one in his hand is also...
Zhang Nuo raised the crystal cup again, wanting to take a closer look at it through the sunlight. He Ren was even more sure when he picked it up. He knew it was a natural crystal cup without even opening his eye.
It's very simple, because no matter how Zhang Nuo turns, the colors reflected by the sunlight through the crystal cup are very bright, which is the characteristic of standard natural crystal.
The light reflected from artificial crystal is only seen on the cut surface and generally floats on the surface. It is not as transparent as natural crystal.
He Ren still opened his eye for treasures, he wanted to determine the year.
Name: Qing Crystal Tea Ball
Years: two hundred and sixty-three years
He Ren nodded secretly. According to the year calculation, it should be the Qianlong period in the mid-Qing Dynasty, which is consistent with history. During the Qianlong period, the products were so abundant, and crystal carvings also developed vigorously during this period. It is normal for such complete and transparent crystal tea balls to be carved from natural crystal.
Based on his trust in He Ren, Zhang Nuo said, "Boss, how did you sell this crystal cup?"
The boss was happy and said, "Beauties have really good eyesight. This crystal cup must be old. I won't care what you want. You can take the fifty thousand yuan."
Zhang Nuo quit immediately, "Boss, you are not kind. How can natural crystal create such a look?"
The boss gave up and said, "Hey, little girl, don't talk nonsense. Have you heard of the Warring States Crystal Cup? It's a national treasure. People could make a similar shape to the current glass more than two thousand years ago. At that time, there were always There’s no artificial crystal, right?”
Zhang Nuo curled his lips, "Do you think I have never been to the Hangzhou Museum? Is the crystal cup from the Warring States Period so transparent? You say this crystal cup is natural crystal, it is too transparent; say it is artificial crystal, there are too many impurities , not fifty thousand, fifty thousand, I’ll take it.”
He Ren didn't hold back and let out a laugh. He was convinced by Zhang Nuo's bargaining skills. They offered fifty thousand, but her counter-offer was only five hundred, so it was just fifty. Isn't this bullying an honest person?
Sure enough, the boss was confused at first, and then showed an expression like "Are you kidding me?" He waited for a long time before saying, "No, sister, you are cutting too hard, aren't you? Even if it is artificial crystal, it will definitely reach the age." At least it’s from the late Qing Dynasty, if you pay fifty...forget it, I won’t sell it.”
He Ren tensed up this time, but he also knew that the boss probably didn't know the origin of the crystal cup, and he probably got it through another conspiracy.
Naturally, Zhang Nuo would not return the crystal cup to the boss, but continued to find fault, "You are still the owner of an antique stall. Don't you know that there was no artificial crystal in the late Qing Dynasty?"
The boss and He Ren were both stunned. He Ren really didn't expect Zhang Nuo to know the history of artificial crystal.
Zhang Nuo held his waist with his hands and talked eloquently, "Don't you understand this? The founder of Swarovski only began to trial-produce artificial crystals in 1908 and could not produce them until 1913. That was during the Republic of China. How could you be What about the late Qing Dynasty? It’s obviously modern.”
He Ren slapped his forehead. He really thought that Zhang Nuo was secretly learning. It turned out that the source of her knowledge was jewelry. As expected, women have no resistance to jewelry...
The boss was stunned for a long time, and then he said weakly, "Maybe I remembered it wrong. Look at this paste, it can't be modern... You can add more for me."
"sixty!"
"Five thousand!"
…
After some haggling, the two settled the deal for 800 yuan, which even He Ren was dumbfounded...
