Wei Ruixiang looked surprised. What He Ren said meant that he must have seen something good.
Boss Jiang had doubts about this at first, but when he saw what He Ren was focusing on, he felt relieved.
It was a pile of four treasures of the study. It is not accurate to say that. It should be said that it was a pile of elegant utensils of the study, and there was no three treasures of pen, ink and paper.
The four treasures of the study are indispensable items for scholars. If one of them is missing, it will be impossible to write or draw. However, the elegant utensils of the study are different. Of course, they are also useful, but they are non-essential. They are mostly used for appreciation and are replaceable. It's also relatively strong.
For example, it is good to have a paperweight, but if not, you may not be able to achieve the same effect with stones. There are also bowls and brush washers, which are containers used to store water or wash brushes. Bowls can also be used instead.
But literati always like to come up with new tricks, and various kinds of elegant utensils for the study room emerge in endlessly. A rough calculation shows that there are about forty or fifty kinds.
There are seven or eight types of tools for placing brushes, including pen holders, pen mountains, pen grids, pen beds, pen boats, pen holders, and pen screens. The materials and shapes are also different...
Boss Jiang had at least a hundred pieces of various study utensils piled on the floor, but he was not worried at all. He had already taken out the valuable items.
For example, those Duan inkstones and Songhua stone inkstones from the Qing Dynasty...
Boss Jiang looked at He Ren with a smile, "Boss He has a good eye. Opening a store must be indispensable for elegant study utensils. I have spent great efforts to collect these in the past few years. Although they are not top-notch, they are all in good condition. There are more than 120 pieces in total, and the package price is 100,000, what do you think?"
He Ren also laughed. Boss Jiang's price was relatively high, one hundred thousand yuan. On average, one piece cost almost one thousand yuan.
Most of Boss Jiang's collection of elegant scholar's utensils are from the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. It would be easier if they were all inkstones. The problem is that the inkstones don't cost much at all and are in average condition. They are definitely not worth the price.
Although the price of what He Ren is interested in is much higher than 100,000 yuan, there is no bargain in antique transactions. If He Ren agrees directly, Boss Jiang will have to think too much.
"Boss Jiang, if you don't tell secrets, I'm afraid you have already picked out the good stuff. I don't buy these things to make money, but to fill the shelves. What do you think of thirty thousand?"
"Thirty thousand is definitely not enough..."
The two of them sealed the deal for 60,000 yuan without saying a word.
In fact, Boss Jiang is not short of these tens of thousands of dollars. Just as He Ren thought, this is just a simple trial. Through this bargaining, Boss Jiang knows that He Ren is not an amateur and is not easy to fool...
Wei Ruixiang also saw Boss Jiang's thoughts through the bargaining between the two. This was a relatively normal situation, but there was still something wrong with the way he looked at He Ren.
The main reason is that He Ren shocked Wei Ruixiang too much during this period...
In order not to make Boss Jiang suspicious, He Ren pretended not to care about the pile of study utensils and followed Boss Jiang into a small room.
This place used to be a warehouse, but now it has been temporarily converted into a reception room by Boss Jiang, which is more convenient for bargaining.
As soon as He Ren and Wei Ruixiang sat down, Boss Jiang took out a few inkstones and said, "Take your eyes, these are Gu Erniang's many children and many blessings inkstones."
He Ren did not put on the gloves first, but glanced at Boss Jiang. Boss Jiang raised his hand to signal He Ren to help himself. He Ren gently touched the surface of the inkstone, nodded slightly, and felt that it was warm and smooth, with a purple color. It was indeed a Duan inkstone. undoubtedly.
Putting on his gloves, He Ren turned the inkstone over and found a lychee carved in the middle. The branches were strong and powerful. The lychee leaves were lightly carved on the side with clear veins. Around the branches, there were three more lychees looming. It turned out to be What a blessing to have so many children.
On the flat side of the inkstone, the characters "Made by Gu Erniang of the Wu Sect" are engraved, which is Li Yangbing's calligraphy style of small seal script with a thousand characters. It should be authentic.
After He Ren looked at it, he put the inkstone on the table and signaled Wei Ruixiang to help himself. He opened his treasurer's eye to verify that it was indeed genuine.
Wei Ruixiang looked quickly. He looked at He Ren and whispered, "It was indeed made by Gu Erniang."
He Ren nodded slightly. Gu Erniang's experience was somewhat legendary. Her real name was Zou. She was born during the Yongzheng period and was married to the son of Gu Delin, a famous inkstone master at that time.
Most of the skills of ancient craftsmen were passed down from male to female, and the same was true for Gu Delin, who passed on his inkstone-making skills to his son.
As a result, something unexpected happened. A few years after Gu Delin's death, his son also passed away unexpectedly. Gu Erniang didn't want the Gu family's inkstone-making skills to be lost. At the same time, she also needed a job, so she took over the Gu family's workshop.
Gu Erniang was extremely intelligent and very interested in making inkstones. When her husband learned about this before his death, he secretly taught her many inkstone-making techniques.
The two couples also made inkstones together in private, and Gu Erniang won every time. In today's terms, Gu Erniang had a talent for making inkstones, and it was not bad.
After Gu Erniang took over the Gu family workshop, she excelled in craftsmanship and the inkstones she created were very popular among literati.
It quickly gained a reputation and was even more popular than the inkstones made by her father-in-law during his lifetime. This was mainly due to Gu Erniang's unique aesthetics. She advocated imitating the artistic conception of the Xuande incense burner in the Ming Dynasty and pursuing elegance and beauty. People were friendly to her. He called her "Gu Qinniang" and called the inkstone she made "Lao Qinniang Inkstone".
I don’t know where this title came from…
Anyway, it was Gu Erniang who became popular. Many literati were proud to have an inkstone made by her. Nowadays, it is a high-end luxury product that can be used for show-off.
Gu Erniang's inkstones are still very popular in the market, with prices ranging from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of thousands. However, her father-in-law Gu Delin's inkstones are not collected by many.
The Duan Inkstone collected by Boss Jiang is in excellent condition, and it is also top-grade among Gu Erniang's works.
He Ren glanced at Boss Jiang and said, "Can you please give me a price?"
Boss Jiang stretched out his hand and said, "Fifty thousand."
He Ren and Wei Ruixiang looked at each other again and nodded at the same time. The price was extremely fair. It was obvious that He Ren's test just now had an effect, and Boss Jiang did not deceive him as a victim.
"I want it, thank you Boss Jiang."
He Ren cupped his hand, put Gu Erniang's Duan Inkstone aside, and then looked at the other two Songhua stone inkstones on the table.
Songhua stone, also called Songhua jade, has a unique texture, solid texture, as warm as jade, and as congealed as cream. But Songhua stone is not jade, but sedimentary rock and an ornamental stone.
This kind of stone is produced by the rivers in Changbai Mountain. It is a specialty of the birthplace of the Qing Dynasty. After entering the customs, it was mostly used to make inkstones. It is a relatively precious material. It is not surprising that Boss Jiang picked out these two inkstones.
He Ren carefully looked at the inscription on the inkstone. On one side it was written in four-character seal script "Qianlong Year System"; on the other side there were two seals "Kangxi" and "Yu Ming" and the inkstone was inscribed "It is used for quietness, so it is used for quietness." Forever”.
He Ren was shocked. The two inkstones were both imperial inkstones!
