NOVEL WEB Chapter 108
The auction then entered a white-hot stage.
The first climax of the auction arrived.
The auction host, Old Wang, personally placed a gold jewelry box on the auction table, then opened the jewelry box, revealing an emerald ring.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this lot is an emerald ring from the harem of the previous dynasty, weighing 53 grams. It is said to be the favorite of a certain empress dowager of the previous dynasty. The starting price is 300,000, and each bid increase must not be less than 10,000. Friends who are interested can make a bid now!"
Old Wang said with some excitement.
As soon as he finished speaking, a guest wearing a scarf and a slightly bloated figure raised his number plate and bid,"330,000!"
"Three hundred and fifty thousand!"
"Three hundred and eighty thousand!"
"……"
"Five hundred thousand!"
"Six hundred thousand!"
"Eight hundred thousand!"
……
"Customer No. 3 has offered 800,000. Is there anyone else who is interested in this emerald gem ring, a treasure from the former imperial court?"
The owner of the auction house, seeing the bidding of the wealthy guests ended, could not help but ask everyone present with an excited look.
The palace treasure emerald ring!
This is a ring that has been passed down from the palace of the previous dynasty. It is said that it was once worn by a queen mother. The ring is inlaid with an emerald the size of a pigeon egg, which emits a dazzling light under the lights of the auction house.
Bidding for such an emerald ring for 800,000 is definitely a sky-high price in China.
But everyone present knows that it is worth it.
Because emerald, as the most expensive jewelry in the world, is not only popular in China, but also in the Western royal family and even among the rich in the West.
It is said that the Holy Grail used by Jesus at his last supper was carved from emerald, and emerald is also mentioned in the Bible.
And emeralds have appeared in history far more than this.
The name emerald comes from Greek.
In Greek mythology, mortals believed that the eyes of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, were the color of emeralds, and her child was Cupid, the god of love.
More than 6,000 years ago, the ancient Babylonians presented emeralds as the most noble gift to the goddess of beauty, hoping to obtain eternal love and unparalleled beauty.
Therefore, in ancient Greece, emeralds were called"green stones" and"glowing stones", and were noble treasures dedicated to Venus, the goddess of love and beauty in Greek mythology.
In the Western royal family and aristocracy, the youthful color of emeralds can stimulate the most primitive vitality of women.
This is also what the aristocracy needs most. They hope that their royal family and royal power can be as eternal as emeralds, and they also hope that they can always maintain their youth and vitality.
Especially for women in the Western royal family and aristocracy, if you don’t have a piece of jewelry made of emerald gemstones, you probably feel embarrassed to go out.
And wait until modern times.
The story of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and Edward has always been a romantic historical legend.
For love, Edward gave up the throne he could inherit and became a duke; in order to propose marriage, Edward bought an extremely precious emerald ring at a high price and wrote on the ring:"Weareoursnow27X36
"
This is the abbreviation of the date Edward proposed to her on October 27, 1936.
This also makes emeralds more popular in the Western world.
Mrs. Simpson's emerald ring weighs about 19.77 carats. The main emerald stone is matched with a circle of high-quality diamonds. The simple and elegant cutting process and inlay are most suitable for emeralds, which are elegant and elegant.
This ring was auctioned at a sky-high price of 2.1 million US dollars in the 1980s.
One carat is nearly 110,000 US dollars.
However, this is not the highest price of emeralds. Two thousand years later, at the Christie's auction in New York, an emerald ring weighing 18.04 carats was sold for 5.5 million US dollars, setting a world record of 305,516 US dollars per carat for the price per carat of emerald auctions.
The emerald ring in front of you is a treasure of the former court. The emerald gemstone, the size of a pigeon egg, is not only bright in color and of extremely high quality, but also weighs 52 grams in total. I am afraid that the gemstone alone weighs more than 40 grams.
And one gram is equal to five carats.
In other words, the weight of the emerald in this ring is at least 200 carats, more than ten times that of Mrs. Simpson's.
In addition, it was made by the royal family of the previous dynasty and was carefully crafted by top jewelers. Therefore
, the value of this emerald ring is definitely more than ten or a hundred times that of Mrs. Simpson's ring, and it is a real national treasure.
Although it is only the early 1950s, there is no fool present. (To read the violent novel, go to Fulu Novel Network!)
As long as this emerald ring can be taken out, even if it is only taken to Hong Kong Island, it may be sold for millions of Hong Kong dollars.
Even if it can be sent to a large Western auction house, it may be sold for hundreds of thousands or even millions of US dollars.
The most important thing is that this emerald ring is a type of jewelry, and it can be taken out openly and is very easy to sell.
In this way, it would be strange if the entire underground auction house did not go crazy, and each one showed its arrogance.
The little property of He Daqing and Chen Xueru was undoubtedly eclipsed by this small emerald ring. Even if they sold all their property, they could not buy this ring.
However, this emerald ring did not end up in the hands of guest No. 3, but was bought by guest No. 2 at a high price of one million RMB.
This made He Daqing smack his lips. He knew the gap between himself and the real rich people in the city.
Even if they were down and out, they could still spend one million to buy a piece of jewelry without blinking an eye.
But the property of him and Chen Xueru added together was probably less than half a million.
This is the gap.[]
Many people think that it was easy to find bargains in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and that you could easily get a lot of antiques.
In fact, this is true, but this large amount of antiques definitely does not include jewelry, but more of porcelain and calligraphy and paintings.
Even for porcelain and calligraphy and paintings, unless you really find a bargain, there are not many fine products that can be found on the market.
Because no matter what era, there is no shortage of smart people and knowledgeable people.
For example, in the TV series"Under the Gate of Zhengyang", Hou Lalan and Guan Yushan have been collecting antiques since the 1950s and 1960s, especially the guy who went from street to street every day to buy jewelry in the name of collecting junk.
But even so, the antiques that fell into their hands were not of high value.
The most precious one, which even Hou Lalan kept secret, seemed to be a piece of porcelain, the Ge Kiln Octagonal Cup.
But to be frank, the value of the Ge Kiln Octagonal Cup is definitely not a little bit worse than the emerald ring in front of you.
No.
There is no comparison at all.
As far as He Daqing knows, in the 1990s, Christie's (Hong Kong) auctioned a Song Dynasty Geyao octagonal Guaner bottle for more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars, which was not as good as the auction price of Mrs. Simpson's emerald ring in the 1980s.
From this, you can know how rare it is to find real top-level antiques.
Want to buy top-level antiques at the price of buying cabbage?
Unless you go to the village and buy them from people who don't know the goods. If there are really people who know the goods, they will never sell them at a low price.
Especially jewelry, the price has never been low, because if it is really good, people have ways to sell it abroad.
You can sell things for millions by using connections to go to Hong Kong Island, or directly smuggling to Hong Kong Island.
Do you think they will sell it to you for a few hundred yuan?
Just think about it and you will know it is impossible.
Or do you think those who have the ability to obtain such treasures will lack ways to smuggle?
You should know that in the early 1970s, in order to avoid going to the countryside, more than 100,000 mainland young people fled to Hong Kong Island.
From this, you can see how unreliable it is to buy antiques with just a few dollars or tens of dollars in this era.
Especially in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, when a large number of antique shops still existed and could open for business.
This was even more impossible..