Generally speaking, softwood furniture is indeed incomparable with hardwood furniture. However, there are also valuable goodies in cork furniture. There are thousands or even tens of thousands of single official hat chairs and armchairs with beautiful shapes, and there are many even higher ones, and this type of items are generally made by officials. The cork furniture made by the government is exquisite in style, meticulous in workmanship, and no expense is spared. It has a different charm from common furniture. In addition, those of good vintage and exquisite workmanship are also very rare. Of course, such good things are rare, especially those with super beautiful workmanship like hardwood furniture are even rarer. "Okay, let me take a look first!" Chu Chen is also very interested in cork furniture. Besides, there are a lot of cork furniture in Ma Laocai. Maybe you will come across one or two good things and it would be good to buy them back. So, after Chu Chen responded, he began to look at the pile of cork furniture in front of him. However, looking at the cork chairs among them made him very disappointed. There were not many good chairs here. There were only two from the late Qing Dynasty that were so-so. The others either fell apart or were poorly made. No matter what, it's really hard to catch his eye. However, just when Chu Chen was about to give up, he accidentally saw a small outstanding case. The table is a rectangular piece of support furniture with feet underneath. Among them, the "cocked head case" refers to the "flying corners" that are installed on both ends of the case surface, so it is called "cocked head case". Nowadays, some people often confuse tables and cases. In fact, the difference between them is quite obvious. To put it simply, the four legs of the table are at right angles to the four corners of the table top. The four legs of the case are not at the four corners, but are retracted into the case at both ends. The small tilt-up table that Chu Chen likes has a single-board surface, a chuck and tenon structure, and a small and upright tilt-head. The chuck mortise and tenon is a mortise and tenon structure commonly used in case furniture. Its form is that there are tenons on the tops of the legs, which are opposite to the mortises on the bottom of the table. The upper part is also open, and the teeth are embedded in it. However, a sloping shoulder is cut out of the upper end of the leg, and a notch is cut out at the intersection of the tooth bar and the leg. When the tooth bar is in contact with the foot and leg, clamp the oblique shoulder of the leg and foot to form a flush surface. The raised table in front of you has the edges of the tooth bars connected to the moir¨¦-patterned tooth heads. The base of the case is embossed with cloud heads, the top is embossed with Yang lines, and the middle part of the legs is engraved with rolling leaves. The shape of this case is concise and mainly focused on lines. The structure is rigorous, the workmanship is fine, and the decoration is simple but natural. It is a typical Ming Dynasty furniture style. Specifically in terms of wood and craftsmanship, Chu Chen thinks it should be a work from the early Ming Dynasty. But one drawback of cork furniture is that it has experienced too many years. Generally, the appearance is not good, either out of shape or falling apart, and the appearance is not beautiful, which can easily give people a bad impression. The outstanding case in front of me is like this. It looks very inconspicuous and looks like low-end goods. Make people have no desire to buy. However, this is of course a layman¡¯s view. Chu Chen would definitely not see it this way. You must know that the handed down items from the Ming Dynasty are mostly large-scale furniture. It is very rare to be so small, and its market value and popularity are very high. , and it is even more rare that it is still in such good condition from the early Ming Dynasty to the present. Of course you can't miss this kind of thing. Seeing Ma Laocai and his son looking at him eagerly, Chu Chen didn't look too much. In addition, he looked quickly. In the eyes of outsiders, he seemed to have just looked at it carelessly, and would never have thought that at this time, his I already feel confident. "Mr. Ma, the cork furniture here is just ordinary stuff!" Chu Chen shook his head. Hearing what Chu Chen said, Zhang Laocai sneered in his heart and said to himself: "There are not many good cork furniture here, but it's not none. And you can judge at a casual glance that these are ordinary goods, so don't think it's too hasty. Isn¡¯t this guy very knowledgeable about furniture?¡± Thinking of this, Zhang Laocai felt that it was normal for Chu Chen to behave like this. He was young and had a good eye for certain aspects of antiques, and it was inevitable that he would be wise. Arrogant, pretending not to understand. It's a pity that he didn't do furniture business before, otherwise he would definitely have to trick Chu Chen! Although he had bad intentions in his heart, Zhang Laocai still said with a smile on the surface: "It is true that most of them are ordinary goods, but it is not that there are no good ones. Look at this walnut wood lower volume, it is very good!" The second volume is the text. The study room is used for displaying bonsais, flower arrangements, handicrafts and other ceremonial items. They are usually made of mahogany or rosewood, and are generally of different lengths, widths and heights. The walnut wood piece mentioned by Ma Laocai is relatively small in volume, with a plain surface and a book-like foot with turned-in legs. The shape is simple and the patina is thick, which is the style of the early Qing Dynasty. It can be placed in the study room for display and study sketches. It is well preserved, which is rare. Chu Chen glanced at the lower scroll, and then said a little stiffly: "So-so, it's not bad!" "Master Chu, do you want it?" Chu Chen'sThe discovery made Ma Laocai feel that Chu Chen didn't know much about furniture as he had just thought. This made him a little secretly happy, thinking that he might be able to make more money when he bid later. Chu Chen pretended to ponder for a while, and then said: "Well, I just want to buy some gifts to give to people. If you can make it cheaper, then I will pick four chairs, a desk and this volume." Lao Cai laughed and said, "Young Master Chu, what you said is, can I still pay you more for your purchase? You pick out the things you want, and I will calculate the money for you." "Okay" After saying that, Chu Chen selected the two chairs and the small desk that he had just chosen. He also selected two more acceptable chairs and placed them in front of Ma Laocai together with the lower scroll. Among these five pieces of furniture, Ma Laocai only thought that two of the chairs and the lower scroll were good. He didn't think that the most valuable piece of furniture was good at all. If he didn't see this thing as old-fashioned at first, he wouldn't have thought it at all. Will buy. Ma Laocai thought for a while and said, "Mr. Chu, it's rare for a distinguished guest like you to come here, so I'm not here for the sake of it. These are 80,000 yuan in total. What do you think?" In other words, the value must be more than 50,000, but as mentioned before, there are indeed tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of cork furniture, but in addition to the high-end cases here, even the most valuable second volume is only worth six or seven thousand. , the other four chairs add up to less than 10,000 at most. And Ma Laocai obviously did not recognize the outstanding case, otherwise he would not have been able to quote this price based on his character. So Chu Chen felt that although he didn't know what the base price was in Ma Laocai's heart, the quoted price of 80,000 was completely prepared to kill him, which made him frown. Ming Mazi had been paying attention to Chu Chen's expression, and when he saw Chu Chen frowning, he roared: "Ma Laocai, don't you want to get out of here? You actually pay 80,000 for such a thing!" Ma Laocai said with a look of aggrievedness. : "Brother Ming, the price I quoted is lower than the market price. I really didn't quote too much!" In terms of the actual value of the things, Ma Laocai did quote much lower than the market price, but Chu Chen didn't think that Ma Laocai He has such a kind heart, and if he agrees to the price immediately, Ma Laocai may become suspicious, which will not be good. So, Chu Chen waved to Ming Mazi and said with a smile: "Mr. Ma, we Ming people don't talk secretly. I also have a shop in Panjiayuan, and the business is not bad, so the price of this cork furniture , I still know." Hearing this, the father and son couldn't help but feel a little dazed, especially Ma Laocai, who secretly cursed "bad luck". The reason why he had such a reaction was because it was not the first time he had dealt with the boss of Panjiayuan, so he understood that those who could do well in Panjiayuan were all human beings, and it was impossible to make money from such people. not easy. Of course, he felt that Chu Chen might be bluffing, but since Chu Chen had such good eyesight, he thought it couldn't be false. Thinking that his plan to make a fortune was ruined, Ma Laocai was secretly angry and could only sigh in his heart. Then he said with a smile: "Master Chu, since you are a colleague, please make an offer!" Chu Chen was not polite, and immediately He said: "These things are all given by me, so I won't take advantage of you, just 18,000, what do you think?" Seeing that Chu Chen suddenly offered the price that he wanted, Ma Laocai He immediately believed Chu Chen's words, which made him very angry, and he kept scolding Chu Chen as a profiteer. Seeing that Ma Laocai lowered his head and didn't reply for a long time, Ming Mazi urged: "Old Ma, if it works, it will work. If it doesn't work, it won't work. You are a bitch who is dawdling!" Ma Laocai came back to his senses and said with a sad face: "Chu Less, supposedly the price you gave is not low, but as I said just now, I am not good at furniture, and the prices for buying these things are not low. If I go by the price you gave me, let alone make a profit, I will lose money. "It's weird to believe you!" Chu Chen chuckled, and then asked: "How much did you say?" Ma Laocai pretended to be pitiful and said, "You see, I am already paralyzed. My living expenses depend on these things, and I don¡¯t ask too much. You can let me earn a little, say twenty-two thousand, what do you think?¡± ¡°Twenty thousand at most, otherwise I might as well buy it in the capital, so I can save money.¡± The freight is paid." Chu Chen shook his head and acted businesslike. If it were someone else like Ma Laocai, then twenty-two thousand would be twenty-two thousand. But the consequences of being kind to someone like Ma Laocai would be It will only make him think that you are taken advantage of. He doesn't want to be called a fool by others behind his back without telling you about his kindness. Speaking of which, when it was 18,000 just now, Ma LaocaiHe has made nearly ten thousand yuan. As he said just now, he is not good at cork furniture. If the things were not cheap and profitable, he would not buy these things at all. Now, seeing that Chu Chen was not fooled, Ma Laocai pretended to lower his head and thought for a while, and finally agreed with some regret.