Pick up treasure

Thank you for the reward of Burning Tianxiaoyue 588, thank you

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At a quarter past seven in the evening, Wang Ding and Jinlong arrived in Xin#jian County in the 211 air-conditioned car.

It's July now, and in Gancheng, a furnace city, if it weren't for this kind of air-conditioned car, people would basically be so hot that they would be wet all over.

And Xin#Jian County is a prefecture-level county below Gancheng. Because it is very close to Gancheng, people who can't afford a house in Gancheng choose Xin#Jianxian.This is certainly the case for Jinlong.

Jinlong's family is not rich, it's an ordinary family. When they got married, their parents paid the down payment for Jinlong to buy a house, and then Jinlong and his wife had to pay more than 2000 yuan for the monthly mortgage.Originally, the family was fine, both parents had retirement pensions, and his father was able to do odd jobs to earn money, but in the first year of Jin Long's marriage, Jin Long's mother contracted a strange disease, and went to the hospital for examination, but there was no result.As a result, Jinlong could only go to doctors indiscriminately, not to mention spending a lot of money, his mother's illness was still undiagnosed, and she was often in labor pains.

Just like that, Jinlong would take his mother to see a doctor every month, and it was a waste of money to check up once. Some doctors just prescribe some medicine in a perfunctory way, and Jinlong couldn't tell if it could cure the disease, but he had to pay for it.Just like this, hundreds of thousands of money were thrown away here.

Jinlong's building is on the second floor. This is a typical small high-rise building with 2 floors in total.When they first bought this building, Jinlong's parents thought that they would be able to move around on the second floor when they were old, so they bought the second floor.

"Wang Ding, there is an old man at home, it's quite chaotic, don't dislike me."

Jin Long walked to the door and said to Wang Ding while taking out the key.

Wang Ding said with a smile, "Look at what you said, Brother Jin, I am honored that you can invite me to your house as a guest. I don't care if the house is chaotic or not? Besides, even if it is chaotic, can it be more chaotic than mine?"

Speaking of which, the door has been opened, and the living room is very spacious, and the pink and white floor tiles give people a feeling of fresh summer wind.Sofa, TV, coffee table?However, the only thing that doesn't match the picture is that the coffee table in the living room is full of bottles of medicine.

When Jin Long finally closed the door with a bang, Wang Ding's nose flew into the smell of the unpleasant medicine mixed together to make people crazy.

Jin Long might have smelled it too, so he opened the door again in a hurry, and then rushed to the window and opened it.

"Wang Ding, I am laughing at you. Because of my mother's illness, there are medicines everywhere in the house, which smells bad."

"It's okay, it's okay. I don't care." Wang Ding is a child who has suffered a lot, so he is not coquettish. Although the smell is not good, Wang Ding can bear it.

"My friend Guizhen is here, cook some good food." Jin Long shouted towards the back room, and after hearing the sound of "Oh" from inside, Jin Long smiled and said to Wang Ding, "Wang Ding, let's go to my study. There are some works of art in there that I think you will be interested in."

For collectors, there are inevitably some treasures in their homes, and Jinlong is no exception.At this time, when he pointed to a room and told Wang Ding to go in there, Wang Ding nodded and followed Jinlong to the inner room.

Pushing open the door, Wang Ding saw dozens of carvings. Obviously, these carvings were made of wood. Among all the carvings, there are two carvings that are more conspicuous. The first one is the one near the left side of the door. Eagle sculpture, this sculpture presents a goshawk spreading its wings to fly, its wings whistling, its eyes unstoppable, very majestic.The other and the second largest sculpture is behind the Goshawk sculpture, which is a sculpture of a wooden boy herding cattle.

Wang Ding knew very little about wood carvings. When he stepped into the world of carvings, Wang Ding was really dizzy.Observing the two most conspicuous carvings, intuitively, Wang Ding can only see that the wood of the two carvings is different, but from the appearance, Wang Ding really can't tell what kind of wood these two carvings are. , suddenly feel the lack of knowledge.

"Why, what do you think of my eagle?"

Seeing Wang Ding looking at the two works of art with great interest, Jin Long asked.

"Root carving?"

Root carving is obvious from the literal meaning, which means that these two works of art are carved from the roots of wood. "Brother Jin, do you mean that the material of these carvings is the root of the wood?"

"Hehe. In a narrow sense, it can be understood in this way, but in a broad sense, root carving also includes tree trunks, tree nodules, bamboo roots, etc. For example, this piece of Mutongzi herding cattle is a root carving completed by the roots and the trunk of the tree."

"Oh, so that's the case. Brother Jin, I'm not afraid of you making fun of me. I'm a complete layman in the art of root carving. Now I just see that the wood of these two carvings is different. Is it possible that I have knowledge in this area?"

The root carving of Mutongzi grazing cow that Wang Ding saw was brownish-yellow, while the carving of goshawk spreading its wings was off-white. The wood of the two is obviously different.

"You're right. There's a lot of knowledge here. Your brother Jin may not dare to say that he knows everything about other antiques. But I have been engaged in the research of root carving since I was a child. To be honest, I am a teenager When I was young, I learned the craft of carving from a folk master, so I am very familiar with root carving. It's just that I didn't learn the art very well, so I gave up continuing to learn carving."

Said that Brother Jinlong had learned sculpture before, Wang Ding really got to know Brother Jin again.In fact, Wang Ding did not understand the art of root carving, but he had also heard about the development of the art of carving.

Not to mention, Wang Ding knew that decades ago, with the decline of root art production and production, people's material consumption had not yet reached that level, many artists changed careers or changed jobs, and root carving skills were on the verge of extinction.I'm afraid that Jinlong's failure to learn carving is also related to this.

"Then Brother Jin, quickly scan my illiteracy."

"Okay," Jin Long said enthusiastically, "As long as you are willing to listen, I will tell you. Appreciating root carvings is the same as other antiques. You need to study its production first, which includes the material of the root carvings and the age of the root carvings. Because a good root carving work of art, its selection of materials must not be random. Generally, root carving materials should be selected from tree species that are hard, stable in wood, not easy to crack and deform, not decayed and immortal, and can be preserved for a long time. The common basics are Boxwood, sandalwood, cypress, elm, etc., such as the wooden boy herding cattle in my house, and several sculptures here, they are all carved from boxwood. You can find the difference between this sculpture and other sculptures Yet?"

Jinlong asked Wang Ding, and Wang Ding tasted the carvings carefully, and walked around these root carvings. These dozens of works of art each have their own merits and are colorful.But to say that the most antique and high-end root carving is this kind of boxwood.

"Could it be because of the color of the boxwood?" Wang Ding guessed boldly.

"Yes, you are indeed extremely intelligent, and you noticed it right away." Jin Long smiled sincerely, and it was the first time he laughed unpreparedly in front of Wang Ding. "It is the color of boxwood. Because the dark brown color of boxwood looks elegant and high-end, it is also the most common root carving art, and it is also the most loved by people. Then there are red cedar and sandalwood, which are still considered high-grade."

"Wang Ding, I suddenly want to ask you, do you want to know more about root carving art? Because I think you are very talented in root carving appreciation."

"Really?" Wang Ding was a little embarrassed by Jin Long's praise. "But Brother Jin, although you praise me so much, I have to say that I am really interested in root carvings. Because among the furniture, root carvings can be said to be uneven. Some low-quality wood carvings are really interesting. I bought it as a good sculpture, so I have to punch it hard, I think this is really useful."

"Yeah" Jin Long sighed, as if he had had a similar experience before.

After pondering for a while, Jinlong said, "Wang Ding, the collection of root carvings has a long history. As early as the middle and late Warring States period, the unearthed root carving "Dispelling evil spirits" showed that the art of root carving had already appeared in our country. It is becoming mature. Root artists not only use wood and bamboo roots to create decorations for people to appreciate, but also carve furniture with practical value and other practical objects of root carving, such as tree root chairs and tree root crutches. So it can be said that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties At that time, root carving had been widely used on furniture. However, since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the art of root carving has been sluggish. During the period of the Republic of China, due to limited production conditions, many carving artists switched careers. The Qing Dynasty can be said to be a dividing line for the art of root carving. If you can see the root carvings of the Qing Dynasty, they are usually of high value, but after the Qing Dynasty or the Republic of China, the value of the root carvings is basically not too high. Of course, this is not absolute. "

"Oh? It's not absolute, so what should we look at?" Wang Ding asked puzzled.

"It's like what I said at the beginning. To taste root carvings, we need to look at the material of the root carvings. Root carvings with good materials are of slightly higher value. Then we also need to look at the shape of the root carvings. The shape of the root carvings is based on "rare, rare ", ancient, strange" and "good meaning" are better. Generally speaking, the more complicated the shape of the root carving, the more wisdom and sweat of the sculptor have been condensed. In this era when the sculptor is absent, its value is usually higher. , and there are root carvings with good meanings, such as Yu Leaping over the Dragon Gate, spreading its wings and flying high, and Fulu Donghai, because they have special meanings, they are generally very popular, so their value will also be raised."

Wang Ding seemed to understand. Listening to Jinlong's introduction of so much knowledge about root carving, Wang Ding has been promoted from an outsider to an insider.

"Brother Jinlong, I have another question."

"Say."

Wang Ding smirked, "What I want to ask is where did you get so many root carvings?"