Looking at Elder Yu, who is wearing a blue shirt and sandals on his feet, and is in good spirits, it is easy to ignore his age.
After 41 years in the antique industry, the 80-year-old Yu Lao can be described as a veteran figure in the antique industry in Fuzhou. For him, collecting is a lifelong pursuit and pleasure.
Increase knowledge and practice eyesight
Before he stepped into the collecting circle, his first consumption was a huge amount of money.
In 1968, Yu Lao graduated from secondary school and went to the Gaozhou Brigade of Zhanghu Edition Commune in Nanping City, Fujian Province, to participate in the movement of intellectual youth to go to the mountains and go to the countryside, where he received his first collection, a Maitreya Buddha statue from the end of the Qing Dynasty. "At that time, a pound of food stamps was 5 cents, and I used 30 pounds of food stamps to exchange them from a Changle person." At that time, his monthly "rations" were only 33 kilograms of food stamps.
In fact, at the beginning, he just thought these ancient objects were interesting, and maybe there was some childish comparison, "I have things that everyone doesn't have."
In 1978, when he was transferred back to Fuzhou from Nanping, he was particularly keen on bonsai, so he plunged into the Zhongting Street Flower and Bird Market.
Slowly the crowd gathered here, many people spontaneously put out some antique objects such as vases, the market gradually became lively, and he officially began his career of "buying, buying and buying".
Yu Lao's potted plants
Elder Yu buys things very "fiercely", if you like it, no matter how much the price is, buy it first and then say, "Usually save money and use it, and the money earned is used to buy these." ”
As more and more things are bought, from hobbyists to connoisseurs, the change of identity is natural.
However, if you want to pick out good things in a bunch of objects that are mixed and difficult to distinguish between true and false, eyesight is crucial.
Elder Yu said frankly that at the beginning of the purchase process, he did not know how to distinguish the true and false of objects, and every weekend he had to go to the antique market to observe how others traded and bought, and also asked the seniors with rich experience and insight for advice, on-site, physical contact, and did not let himself talk on paper.
Friends who came to drink tea said: "Yu Lao is a person who is recognized as having excellent eyesight in the industry, and many people will take things to the door to ask him to palm his eyes", which undoubtedly requires years of time immersion and experience accumulation.
Treasure hunting in all corners of the world
Elder Yu is a collector and a businessman. In 1999, he took his son to open his first store in Xiangyuantou Antique City, Jin'an District, Fuzhou, and two years ago, his son Yu Maorong's shop, Penggu, was also officially stationed in the Guozhu Creative Park.
In the Peng Valley, thousands of antiquities such as porcelain, ancient furniture, old components, doors and windows are sorted and placed in various places in the space, as if entering the "grocery store" of antiquities.
Pentani Studio
In the era of underdeveloped information, collecting objects all rely on "running", "I go to Changle every Wednesday and Friday, and Go to Lianjiang on Thursday and Saturday", sometimes a phone call comes, and I can't even take care of food, for fear of missing good things.
There are concentration points for special shopping, and you can also "treasure hunting" on the antique stalls, but either way, you have to abide by the rules.
"When buying something, it is important to come first, first come, when the stall owner and the buyer deal, others cannot express their opinions, let alone participate in the bargaining, and only when the buyer puts down the things in his hand can he carry out the next round of transactions."
At the end of the 1990s, Chinese collectors gradually became active in the market, and connoisseurs went to collect dozens or hundreds of pieces of things to buy.
At the height of his business, Yu Lao had to stay in Beijing for 3 months a year, where businessmen from all over the country gathered, and he often pulled containers full of old objects to Beijing, bought goods while selling goods, and then shipped back to Fuzhou.
"At that time, things were easy to buy, high quality and cost-effective, especially things in the north were cheap, and you just felt like you didn't have enough money and the vehicle wasn't big enough."
For the collection industry seriously, always ensure the integrity of the supreme, he also warned his son, "first be a person, then do things."
Today, Elder Yu has lived in seclusion behind the scenes, and the business is fully managed by his son, and he has more time to play with his favorite things.
For 41 years, the original intention has not changed
Elder Yu prefers porcelain, picks up one at random, from the age, glaze, shape, can walk non-stop.
However, in recent years, he has received very few porcelain, one is that the porcelain imitation is very realistic, and he does not dare to start at will, and the second is that everyone's attention is now more focused on furniture and calligraphy and painting.
"No one used to collect furniture, and it was only around 1986 that the wave started." Eight years ago, Mr. Yu also specially invited Master Pan, who has been engaged in the carpentry industry for more than 30 years, to help with the maintenance and reproduction of old furniture, and also accepted private customization.
"Old furniture is to repair the old as old, from the age, material, style to match."
Master Pan
Yu Lao is not good at calligraphy and painting, but he is also willing to collect when he meets the eye.1 When he was only paid 30 yuan a month, he once spent 150 yuan to buy a test paper of Wang Renkan, a Qing Dynasty champion, "This paper was the test paper made by Wang Renkan when he was examining people." ”
There is also a congratulatory message, which was inscribed by dozens of celebrities on the birthday of Sa Zhenbing, a famous Chinese admiral in modern times.
He also loves to play miscellaneous, miscellaneous is a common name in the past antique industry, refers to the collection of "mainstream" - calligraphy and painting, ceramics, jade and other categories outside the category, containing a very wide range, such as bamboo, wood, teeth, horns, four treasures of the study room, etc., mostly small and fine objects, but better than interesting.
In fact, no matter what type, as long as you like it, you can collect it. He believes that
41 years have passed, and the "Little Yu" of that year has become "Old Yu", and the only constant is his love for collecting.