Pick up bargains in Chinatown and make 10,000 times the profit at the beginning

Chapter 74 Royal Flower Pot

"This thing looks a bit like an ancient chamber pot." Qiao Yufan expressed his opinion.

He had really seen something similar.

The name of the chamber pot is elegant, but it is actually a container for urinating at night.

In the past, people lived in cramped conditions and only a few had toilets at home.

Those who lived in the alleys had to walk five to eight minutes to get to the toilet. Who would be willing to go to the toilet in the middle of the night? Especially in the cold winter, it took a lot of determination to get out of bed, let alone walk a long way just to pee.

Thus, the chamber pot came into being.

"No, it's a spittoon, right? Now in some places in the United States it's popular to use spittoons to hold fruit, it seems very fashionable. They don't know at all that that thing is used for spitting in China," said Li Qiu Shui.

It's quite funny. Their introduction to the product is: you can put red wine and fruit in it. They even explain the picture on the spittoon. There are mandarin ducks on it, which symbolize beautiful love, and the red double happiness next to it means double happiness. The spittoon carries a beautiful blessing and is suitable for putting food in it.

This was very useful to Americans, and the spittoons were sold out at one point.

It wasn't until the New York Post revealed its true purpose that the spittoon was removed from the shelves.

Henry also remembered: "Yes! Indeed, many young people use it as an ice bucket to store fruit, red wine, etc."

Speaking of this, he was also speechless.

As someone who had studied abroad, he naturally knew that it was used to hold spit and other dirty things.

Lin Yuan: "There are many kinds of chamber pots, and spittoons are one of them."

When mentioning the spittoon, Lin Yuan thought of the beauty bowl.

The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty plundered the people's wealth endlessly. Since these people were extinct families with no descendants, they squandered it even more and were extremely cruel. In order to satisfy their abnormal and morbid spiritual needs, they invented many extravagant and extravagant ways of enjoyment, and "beauty bowl" was one of them.

The so-called "beauty bowl", as the name suggests, is a spittoon made from a living person.

From the slaves bought with money, the young and beautiful ones were chosen, and they were made to kneel in the room and serve all day long. Whenever the master coughed, the beauty would immediately open her cherry-like mouth, catch the thick phlegm spit out from the master's mouth, and swallow it into her stomach while suppressing her nausea. This was the "beauty bowl".

The wealthy families at that time vied with each other to imitate this move. Whoever was powerful and wealthy would place a living beauty as a "bowl".

The more splendid and beautiful the "beauty bowl" was, the more prominent the owner's status appeared. This custom continued until the eunuch party lost power, when it was gradually abolished.

"The chamber pot shouldn't be valuable anymore, right?" Huo Qingtong said.

"That's not necessarily true. It depends on the materials." Lin Yuan responded to her.

The materials of chamber pots vary. The chamber pots of wealthy and powerful men are often made of gold or silver. The slightly inferior ones are made of copper, and iron is rare.

Ordinary chamber pots are made of porcelain, but some are made of clay. Those made of clay are not very high-end and are not strong. If the glaze is uneven, it may leak.

According to historical records, the chamber pot used by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty was made of gold and was managed by a personal eunuch. Every night, the eunuch in charge of the chamber pot would find out in advance which concubine the emperor would stay with overnight, so that he could deliver the chamber pot in advance and give it to the concubine who would serve him that night.

"However, this is not a chamber pot, but a real flower pot." Lin Yuan said to everyone.

"Ah! Is this a flower pot?"

Whose flowerpot is made into a spittoon? Isn't it embarrassing?

Lin Yuan nodded: "That's right! And it's a royal flowerpot."

Qiao Yufan and others: “…”Isn’t this… a bit too strong?

Lin Yuan told everyone that this was a Ming Dynasty Jun kiln celadon glaze bowl-shaped flowerpot.

"Jun kiln? Jun kiln, one of the five famous kilns in Song Dynasty?" My uncle was stunned.

He has been in this business for so long that he must have heard of the name of Jun Kiln.

Jun kiln porcelain is extremely precious, and there are many sayings about it among the people, such as "Even if you have a fortune of millions, it is not as good as a piece of Jun porcelain", "Jun porcelain is unparalleled, and kiln changes are unparalleled", "One color goes into the kiln, and a thousand colors come out of the kiln", "Jun porcelain is painted red and is priceless, but if Jun is not painted red, you will be poor all your life" and so on.

Jun kiln porcelain has always been called "the national treasure" by people. Among the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, it is unique with its "glaze of five colors and unparalleled beauty".

The ancients used poems such as "The purple and green of the setting sun suddenly turn into mist" to describe the beauty of the flexible and subtle changes in the glaze color of Jun porcelain.

"It's the Jun kiln, but not from the Song Dynasty." Lin Yuan corrected.

The reason why he was sure it was not from the Song Dynasty was mainly because he looked at the treasure-hunting ritual and combined it with some knowledge he had recently learned and made a comprehensive analysis.

"Isn't that right? I've heard Uncle De say before that the most important feature of Jun kiln porcelain is the earthworm pattern. You didn't see it on this piece, right?" my uncle questioned.

There are often zigzag lines in the glaze layer of Jun glaze, which looks like earthworms walking in mud, hence the name.

This is because the glaze layer cracks during drying or firing, and then glaze flows in to fill it at the high temperature stage.

"Uncle, before the Republic of China, the earthworm mud pattern was indeed used as the only criterion for judging Jun glaze. But after this technology was mastered, it is no longer the only criterion for judgment." Lin Yuan felt that his uncle must not have listened carefully enough and missed half of it.

In the eyes of contemporary people, the earthworm pattern was originally a glaze disease phenomenon, but in the eyes of ancient literati it is an advantage and feature. It is a natural kiln change phenomenon that can bring people infinite imagination and turn decay into magic, becoming a rare appreciation point.

"Besides, how do you know it's not there? Why not use a magnifying glass to take a look first?" Lin Yuan added.

At this time, Huo Qingtong raised his hand.

"Brother Lin, I want to ask, how do you know it is a royal flowerpot?"

Lin Yuan tilted the flower pot sideways so that everyone could see the bottom of the pot.

"Did you see the words clearly?"

Only then did everyone discover that there were some words engraved on the bottom of the flowerpot: For use in Ninghui Hall of Jianfu Palace.

Jianfu Palace is located in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City. The Jianfu Palace you see now is a reconstruction, as the earliest Jianfu Palace has been burned down.

This palace was built in the fifth year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Qianlong collected his favorite rare cultural relics here and often wrote poems and admired paintings in the garden. During the reign of Emperor Jiaqing, he ordered that all of them be sealed up, making it a veritable treasure house.

In 1923, a mysterious fire suddenly broke out in the garden, and the entire garden along with countless treasures was reduced to ashes overnight. Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty who was still living in the Forbidden City at the time, suspected that the eunuchs had robbed the garden and set the fire to destroy the evidence.

"Could it have been carved in later?" Henry suggested a possibility.

Lin Yuan nodded: "It is possible, so we need more powerful experts to further identify it."

My uncle took more than a dozen photos with his mobile phone and sent them to Uncle De and Boss Lei respectively.

If this is Jun kiln porcelain and a royal flowerpot, it would be very valuable.

(End of this chapter)