Chapter 18: The Noble in the Chair

  It's not just Ren Lijuan who thinks Zhou Mingluo is showing off because he saw a beautiful woman, and the middle-aged boss who came over also gave Zhou Mingluo a somewhat strange glance, seemingly feeling relieved for his age.

  He then coughed lightly again and said to Ren Li Juan, "This lady, what do you think of that chair earlier? That's a Huang Hua Li chair, the only one in this entire Nan Gu Wan Cheng. I just got it a few days ago. If you miss it now, who knows when you'll see another one. Huang Hua Li chairs are always in high demand."

  The middle-aged man's voice was neither fast nor slow, just as calm and composed.

  It's as if she was very confident in her own things and wasn't afraid that no one would want them, she just kindly reminded Li Juanyi.

  This remark suddenly shifted Ren Lijuan's attention, and she looked back at the very eye-catching and beautiful yellow armchair.

  "How much does this chair cost?" As Ren Lijuan turned around, Yang Dan also took another look at the armchair.

  As soon as the price was mentioned, Ren Lijuan's energy shifted again, and she looked straight at the middle-aged boss. The middle-aged man glanced at Zhou Mingluo before calmly saying, "Seven hundred thousand."

  "Ah... 700,000? This chair is worth 700,000?" The middle-aged man's words shocked Yang Dan on the spot, and he opened his mouth in incredulity.

  It was Ren Lijuan who didn't show any surprise at this price, but only slightly furrowed her brow.

  "Ah, madam, you might not know that the armchair is a noble among antique furniture, and it's one of the most expensive kinds. The Huanghuali furniture is already valuable, and 700,000 yuan is really not a high price." The middle-aged man spoke again, still with a calm face, and only then looked at Ren Li Juan, "I think this lady understands, she looks like a connoisseur."

  Ren Lijuan's eyebrows relaxed slightly, and she said, "70,000 is indeed not expensive. I heard that the price of the chair is also not low. My grandfather bought a Qing dynasty purple sandalwood stool for 140,000 last time. The chair must be more expensive than the stool. Besides, Huanghua pear wood is not much worse than purple sandalwood." After saying this, she turned to look at Zhou Mingluo again. Yang Dan became even more tense and whispered in Zhou Mingluo's ear, "Is it true or false? Can that broken chair really be worth 700,000? Are you kidding me?"

  She knew antiques should be expensive and that Ren Lijuan was wealthy with a very good family environment, but she really didn't think an old broken chair could be priced at 700,000.

  With these words, Zhou Minglu suddenly laughed, but it was a laugh of helplessness and frustration.

  Official chair, is indeed the aristocrat of Chinese furniture!

  In the millennium cultural heritage, the armchair has become a symbol of power and status.

  You say someone is sitting in the first chair, the implication is very clear, but if you say he is sitting in the first armchair, rose chair or taishi chair, I'm afraid no one knows what that means, this is cultural connotation, and this is something that other chairs cannot replace.

  This transformation of the throne into a symbol of power and status is mainly related to its function.

  A portable chair is a folding stool with a backrest and two armrests, which can be easily carried around. It's often referred to as a "chair on the move". Later, whenever emperors went out hunting or traveling, someone would have to carry this portable chair for the emperor to rest halfway through. Only one such chair was allowed in the entire imperial procession, and only the emperor had the privilege of sitting on it. Gradually, this portable chair became an irreplaceable symbol of power.

  The Huanghuali armchair is indeed extremely expensive and rare.

  In addition to considering the style of furniture itself, the choice of materials is also important. Chinese furniture can be roughly divided into two types: hardwood and softwood.

  Among them, hardwood is represented by purple sandalwood, yellow rosewood and red wood, while softwood includes nanmu and walnut wood.

  The distinction between soft and hard wood in ancient China is very clear, and can be seen from the names. All hardwoods have literary names, such as purple sandalwood, which does not come from the purple sandalwood tree. In fact, there is no such thing as a purple sandalwood tree in nature, nor is there a yellow flower pear tree or a red tree. The names of these hardwoods are all taken from extremely literary names, with "purple sandalwood" being derived from the phrase "purple air comes from the east", while "yellow flower pear" represents the color yellow, which was a symbol of the imperial family in ancient times. Red wood simply refers to the color red, which has always been an auspicious and prosperous color in China.

  Cedar comes from cedar trees and walnut wood comes from walnut trees.

  The two types of wood materials, softwood and hardwood, have distinct names.

  The status of hardwood furniture is far higher than softwood in China's furniture market.

  Among all hardwoods, the most expensive ones are Dalbergia and Yellow Rosewood.

  If mahogany is considered the aristocrat of furniture, then purple sandalwood and yellow rosewood are the aristocrats of wood.

  And also because zitan is not suitable for making a folding chair, as a folding chair is a movable chair, the biggest feature is convenience, can be carried, but zitan is heavy and brittle, just contradicting the most obvious characteristics of a folding chair, so up to now, all museums in the world have not collected an ancient zitan folding chair, because it simply does not exist.

  The best armchair that can be collected by countries or private individuals is Huang Huali armchair, with only about one to two hundred in the world.

  In 1996, a Christie's auction sold a Huanghuali armchair for over $5 million, equivalent to around 50 million RMB at the time. In today's market with skyrocketing prices in 2011, it would probably be worth one or two hundred million.

  But later when the chair was on display in a museum in the United States, it was sat on and broken by a fat man.

  The US and China have different histories, national conditions, and concepts. Americans are more open-minded; if there's an antique, they'd think of ways to let more people get close to it. The throne on display can be sat on by all visitors in a museum, at close range. If this were in China, who would dare sit on such an expensive museum artifact? That's ridiculous.

  It's probably the American national condition that led to this tragedy, because the chair was just a Magis folding chair with a back and two armrests, but its legs were too thin and crossed over each other in a foldable design, so it broke into pieces when someone sat on it with their butt...

  This is still Huanghua pear wood armchair, the wood of Huanghua pear has become less prone to cracking than purple sandalwood, and can also be used as a stool, so there is no such thing as a purple sandalwood armchair. The armchair is best represented by the Ming and Qing Huanghua pear wood armchairs.

  If the armchair in front of the middle-aged shop owner is really a Huanghuali armchair that has been passed down from the Ming and Qing dynasties, then the price of 700,000 yuan is not expensive at all.

  The current price of Huanghua pear wood chairs varies from several hundred thousand to several million yuan, depending on the production era, workmanship differences and preservation degree.

  But this chair is fake.

  Yesterday, Zhou Ming and Bi Lao also came to this store, paying attention to that armchair. It is indeed an armchair made of Huang Hua Li, but it's not a product from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Instead, it's modern craftsmanship, using aging techniques to make the surface look very old.

  There are too many ways to make furniture look old. The simplest way is to tie it up with a rope after it's done, throw it into the stinky ditch, bind two stones, soak for two weeks, take it out and dry it in the sun for another week or two, then throw it back into the stinky ditch and repeat this process several times. After one summer, it can be made to look like an antique. If you don't cut it open to check, it's easy to deceive the eye.

  This is still a very simple method, and there are many other subtle distressing techniques that can be dizzying.

  "This chair is too expensive." With a slightly helpless shake of her head, under the gaze of Ren Lijuan and Yang Dan, Zhou Ming Luo finally spoke up with a faint smile, very firmly giving her own answer.

  Although he was invited by Yang Dan, he is after all a mixed bag in this line, naturally knowing the rules. Even if someone sells you something fake, you can't say it too bluntly and directly say that the other party is deceiving people, but only choose more euphemistic language.

  Although Zhou Ming Luo's words are somewhat obscure, they are also very straightforward. That is to say, it is not worth 700,000 yuan, and it is fake.

  Alas... Alas, Zhou Ming has forgotten, Yang Dan and Ren Lijuan are both outsiders who don't understand this at all.

  So although he said it very bluntly, Yang Dan nodded frequently in agreement, she also felt that spending 700,000 to buy a broken chair was too exaggerated, and of course, she strongly agreed with this sentence.

  Ke Ren Li Juan furrowed her brow, the price was too high? What did he mean? Did the other party think she couldn't afford 700,000? Or was this guy completely clueless and just spouting nonsense?