Old Harden, can you handle having your vision-shifting abilities on all the time?

Lin Wan also squatted down and asked curiously, "What is this?"

Before Xu Xing could speak, the stall owner smiled and said, "This is a gui-style incense burner. Although it doesn't have a base mark, it is a sacrificial vessel from the Qing Dynasty's official kiln."

"You know what sacrificial vessels are, right? They're used by the emperor during rituals such as offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and at the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

Xu Xing smiled and said, "It is indeed a sacrificial vessel, but this vessel is not from the Kangxi, Yongzheng, or Qianlong reigns; it is from the Shunzhi period."

During the Shunzhi reign, not long after the Qing army entered the pass, the political situation was unstable, and the craftsmanship of this batch of sacrificial vessels was rough and the shapes were not exquisite.

Normally it would be worth a lot of money, but the repair work was so poor that it completely ruined the piece.

The stall owner didn't argue, but just smiled awkwardly and said, "If it weren't for that, this kind of thing wouldn't have ended up at my stall. Besides, this thing isn't without its merits; at least I have an ancient book here that records its transmission history."

The booklet dates back to the late Qing Dynasty, with subsequent texts added by collectors throughout the ages; the item is absolutely genuine.

Xu Xing took the booklet from the stall owner and immediately noticed that the paper was old and worn. The cover was made of dark blue cloth and the edges were worn so that the cardboard inside was exposed.

He turned to the first page and saw a line of neat, tiny characters, the ink calm and the strokes vigorous.

The inscription reads that in the twelfth month of the twenty-third year of the Guangxu reign, this gui-shaped incense burner was acquired in Liulichang, Beijing. According to the seller, it was an official kiln sacrificial vessel from the Shunzhi reign, which was lost to the people due to war.

I observed that its shape was simple and ancient, and its glaze was warm and lustrous. Although it had no mark on the bottom, it was definitely an early Qing dynasty piece, so I purchased it for thirty taels of silver.

The signature is a small vermilion seal, the characters of which are blurred but can be vaguely discerned as "Yangengtang".

Xu Xing turned a few more pages, and the handwriting gradually changed.

From calligraphy brushes to fountain pens, ink evolved from liquid ink to blue-black ink, and later to carbon ink.

Each collector left their own records, spanning from the late Qing Dynasty to the 1990s.

The degree of paper oxidation, the depth of ink penetration, and the changes in paper fibers are all normal.

Xu Xing confirmed that the booklet was genuine and that the provenance of this gui-shaped incense burner was traceable, dating back at least to the Guangxu era, and that it had been collected by a reliably documented family.

The problem is that this piece of porcelain may not be the same one recorded in the catalog.

Or perhaps the record in the booklet is correct, but collectors throughout history have been deceived by the appearance of this porcelain piece.

Xu Xing picked up the gui-shaped incense burner again, activated his X-ray vision once more, and his gaze penetrated the glaze to reach the body of the vessel.

The particle structure, sintering degree, and impurity distribution of the matrix are all clearly visible.

He confirmed once again that the porcelain body was not characteristic of the Shunzhi period at all.

Not long after the Qing army entered the pass during the Shunzhi reign, the production order of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory had not been fully restored. The porcelain body was generally coarse with obvious granules, and the sintering temperature was not uniform, with the body color being grayish-yellow.

However, the body of this gui-shaped incense burner is fine and densely sintered, with a white body that has a faint glutinous rice luster.

This is a typical characteristic of official kiln porcelain from the late Kangxi period!

Xu Xing calmly put down the porcelain.

During the late Kangxi period, the production techniques of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory had reached their peak, and the quality of the body and glaze was at its best.

However, Emperor Kangxi reigned for 61 years, during which time he never stopped organizing and replicating cultural relics from previous dynasties.

This includes sacrificial vessels from the Shunzhi reign.

Due to the short reign of Emperor Shunzhi and the fact that the imperial kilns produced a limited number of sacrificial vessels after the country was newly established, the craftsmanship was relatively rough.

In the later years of Emperor Kangxi's reign, when the country was at its peak, the court began to systematically organize the cultural relics of the previous dynasties and discovered that the number of sacrificial vessels from the Shunzhi era was insufficient and their condition was poor.

Therefore, Emperor Kangxi ordered the imperial kilns to imitate a batch of ritual vessels in the style of the Shunzhi Emperor in order to fill the gaps in sacrificial rites.

However, the problem is that the craftsmanship of the Kangxi period was far superior to that of the Shunzhi period. If the products were made entirely according to the standards of the Kangxi imperial kilns, the finished products would be immediately recognizable as products of the Kangxi era, and would not achieve the purpose of filling the gap left by the Shunzhi period.

Therefore, this batch of counterfeit ritual objects was made using deliberately crude methods.

The shape imitates the rough style of the Shunzhi period, and the craftsmanship is deliberately made to be rougher. The glaze is even intentionally fired with some flaws. The foot ring is deliberately imitated to make it consistent with the appearance of the genuine Shunzhi period pieces.

However, the fetus cannot be faked.

The clay formula and firing techniques of the late Kangxi period were fundamentally different from those of the Shunzhi period, and this difference was indistinguishable when the porcelain was undamaged.

However, anyone with even a slight knowledge of Qing dynasty porcelain could tell something was wrong after the porcelain body cracked. The fact that this item is now found in street stalls suggests that both the repairers and collectors who handled the broken porcelain are only half-baked.

They did not notice anything unusual.

Therefore, its true value in its complete state is not the three or four million of Shunzhi sacrificial vessels, but at least twenty million of Kangxi official kiln masterpieces!

Xu Xing took a deep breath, put down the booklet, and said to the stall owner, "The booklet is indeed genuinely well-documented, but the restoration of this porcelain piece is really poor."

These rivets were hammered in haphazardly, some even damaging the integrity of the glaze. I'll have to spend time and effort repairing them after buying them, so please give me a fair price.

The stall owner's lips twitched, and he said, "Boss, you can't say that. Although this porcelain mending is rough, at least it fixes the item. It's better than a pile of broken pieces, right?"

Moreover, this booklet is a genuine record of its provenance; the booklet itself is worth a considerable sum!

Xu Xing shook his head: "The booklet is nice, but the porcelain itself is in very poor condition. How about this, I won't haggle with you any longer. 780,000, take it if you want, otherwise forget it."

The stall owner's expression changed: "Seven hundred and eighty thousand? Boss, that's too much! I wouldn't have gotten that much for the original price!"

Xu Xing made a move to get up: "Then forget it, I don't necessarily have to buy it."

"No, no, no!"

The stall owner quickly stood up, a smile plastered on his face, and said, "Boss, could you add some more? Eight hundred thousand, is eight hundred thousand alright?"

"Seven hundred and eighty thousand, not a penny more."

Xu Xing's attitude was very firm.

After hesitating for a long time, the stall owner finally gritted his teeth and said, "Fine! Seven hundred and eighty thousand it is! Consider it making friends!"

Xu Xing then sat down again, took out his phone, and scanned the QR code to pay.

The stall owner deftly packed the porcelain and booklet into a cloth bag and handed it to Xu Xing: "Boss, here you go!"

Xu Xing took the bag and weighed it in his hand; only then did he feel truly relieved.

Lin Wan looked somewhat surprised.

From the start of the bargaining in Xuxing to the final transaction, it only took about ten minutes, and 780,000 yuan was spent just like that?

Although she knew Xu Xing was rich, the speed at which he spent money was terrifying.

"Let's go."

Xu Xing stood up, picked up the cloth bag, and pulled Lin Wan up with his other hand, saying, "Let's go back to the hotel."

Lin Wan snapped out of her daze and quickly followed in his footsteps.

The two left the food street and took a taxi back to the hotel.

Upon entering the room, Xu Xing carefully placed the cloth bag on the table and then went to the front desk to ask for a cardboard box.

Lin Wan asked curiously, "What are you trying to do?"

As Xu Xing lined the box with his own clothes, he explained, "Although this porcelain piece was repaired with metal staples, the staples were laid haphazardly, and some even caused secondary damage to the porcelain body."

I need to take it back first, remove all the staples, and then repair it again.

Lin Wan nodded as if she understood, then asked, "Is this thing really worth seven or eight hundred thousand?"

Xu Xing looked up and smiled: "If my judgment is correct, this item will be worth close to 20 million after it is restored."