What is the collection value of ancient books?

Since the 1990s, the auction of ancient books has been very popular, and the price is getting higher and higher. Does the sharp rise in book prices mean that all ancient books can appreciate? Wang Lingce believes that rare ancient books and printmaking ancient books have great value-added potential.

Rare ancient books

Rare books of ancient books mainly refer to edition books with historical relics, academic materials and artistic value. Including the imperial government's palace edition books, unique manuscripts at home and abroad, manuscripts of Ming and Qing dynasties with good content and fine calligraphy, and exquisite engravings before the early Qing Dynasty. The older the book, the more precious it is. Whether a private book collection reaches the level of a bibliophile is often based on how many good books are collected.

Song edition books have always been regarded as the best books, and there is a saying that "one page of Song edition is worth one or two ounces of gold". Because Song edition books are precious, most people who own them are reluctant to sell them easily, especially the Song edition books in the hands of collectors, let alone let him sell them or even show them to others. Therefore, once the book is destined to meet the Song edition, it is a value-added financial management road to make up your mind to buy it as long as financial resources allow. Although Yuan edition can't be compared with Song edition, collectors always think that Song and Yuan editions are rare and rare, and fans deserve attention. Now with the passage of time, many recent ancient books have naturally sublimated. Ming and even early Qing editions, all the ancient books with documentary value and exquisite carving have also entered the ranks of rare books. Wang Lingce said that it is not difficult to find rare books in Ming and Qing Dynasties at present, and the price is not too high, but the value-added potential is quite large, which deserves collectors' attention.

Wang Lingce told reporters that rare ancient books have the following nine representations:

① Books engraved and copied before Yuan and Yuan; (2) Ming block-printed edition and Ming copy (except those with vague block-printed edition and more circulation);

(3) block prints and manuscripts that were not popular before Qianlong in Qing Dynasty; (4) The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the peasant regime carved books over the years; ⑤ Before the Revolution of 1911, there were original opinions or school characteristics in academic research, or manuscripts with systematic opinions were collected, as well as rare block prints and manuscripts;

⑥ Manuscripts reflecting a certain period, a certain field or an event before the Revolution of 1911, as well as rarely circulated block prints and manuscripts;

⑦ Famous scholars personally approved the school, wrote inscriptions and comments; ⑧ In printing, it can reflect the development of ancient printing technology in China, and fine printed matter represents various movable type paintings, overprinting or block printing in a certain period.

Pet-name ruby Ming and Qing dynasty ancient books collection prints, famous seal engraving prints (with features and full-page or handwritten inscriptions).

Printmaking ancient books

While paying attention to rare ancient books, collectors pay more and more attention to the collection of ancient prints. Wang Lingce said that from the catalogue of previous book auctions, all the printed materials in the auction catalogue are exquisite, and even if there is only one book, they never give up. There are many ancient prints in China, such as Mustard Garden, Biography of Mustard Garden, Biography of Late Laughing Hall, Little White Picture, Dream of Red Mansions, Picture of Tang Poetry, Picture of Hongxue, Picture of Three Talents, Picture of Confucius, Picture of Thirty-six Scenes of Summer Resort, Picture of Farming, etc. The most exquisite printmaking masterpiece belongs to Hu, a painter in the late Ming Dynasty. These two sets of ancient printmaking books not only have outstanding artistic achievements, but also create a precedent for woodcut watermarking. In the early days of liberation, Amin's version of Ten Bamboo Paintings and Calligraphy only sold for 10 yuan, and now the value has exceeded100000, showing the version.

Rare books of Tibetan ancient books

On the whole, the ancient books in China are mainly in the form of block printing, and various forms (movable type, lithograph and photocopying) coexist. The so-called block printing is a printing process in which words are engraved on a board and then used to print books. First, the words "Yang Wen Inverted" are engraved on the board, then the board is coated with ink and covered with paper to print the page. The ancients called such printed books woodcuts or prints, and modern people call them woodcuts. According to different situations, woodcuts are divided into several different edition series, such as original woodcuts, reprint woodcuts, writing woodcuts and color-matching woodcuts. Zhou Haiying told reporters in an interview.

The original edition, also called the ancestor edition, is what modern people call the first edition, which is the original appearance and "soul" of a book. Authors and publishers often attach great importance to the engraving of the original works, so most of them are carefully carved, and they also pay great attention to paper and ink. Printed books have neat layout and clear handwriting. Generally speaking, there are not many original prints, so the original prints in ancient books have always been the first choice for collectors.

To judge whether an ancient book is the original engraving printing, we usually make a comprehensive judgment from the aspects of data records, publisher's signature, preface and postscript in the book. For an ancient book with multiple sequences, we should pay attention to whether the last sequence is destroyed. In addition, because the block-printed version of ancient books will not change once it is engraved, it can also be compared with the size and number of words of the original block-printed version. Zhou Haiying said that the original Kangxi Dictionary, compiled and published during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, was a famous rare book in the early Qing Dynasty. However, Kangxi Dictionary was reprinted in the middle of Qing Dynasty, the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and the value of the original edition was far from that of the later edition. According to the hardcover of Kangxi Neifu Palace in the museum, the original rigid frame is 19.5 × 14 cm, with 8 lines 12, and the small print is double-lined. According to the comparison between this size and the real thing, it is clear at a glance whether it is the original engraving.

The vast majority of ancient books that have survived at present belong to this category. Compared with the original edition, the second edition is basically the same, but due to political, human or technical reasons, there are often changes and sometimes some mistakes. And the more times you turn it over, the more mistakes you make. Therefore, the collection value is far from the original prints.

Generally, it can be seen from the inscription and preface of reprinted books, but it does not rule out that a few unscrupulous booksellers dig books, destroy the order, and change them to print them before. This requires collectors to comprehensively judge from the characteristics of books, papers and prints of different times. Zhou Haiying said, however, there are still several kinds of piracy worthy of collectors' attention. First, the original engraving has been lost, or only the orphan copy has survived or been lost. Then the second edition will become the only one left in the world, and its preciousness is no less than the original. Secondly, the book engraver is a famous book engraving institution in history. For example, the official bookstores of past dynasties, the famous Tongzhitang and Jigu Pavilion, etc. These institutions often gather a group of famous craftsmen with exquisite carving, careful collation and excellent paper and ink, and their publications enhance their artistic value with their exquisite printing technology. The third is shadow carving. Because the rare books of Song and Yuan Dynasties in ancient books were written by many famous artists, not craftsmen, the words were all fat and thin, and the best one was Liu Ou's brushwork, which was clear and bright. Shadow carving is to copy the original engraving first, and then engrave it on the original edition, so that the printed book not only has the same content as the Song and Yuan engraving, but also conforms to the details, and the names of the engravers and their marks on the pages are preserved intact. This copy of the Song Dynasty is called "Song Fu Ben", and the copy of the Yuan Dynasty is called "Fu". In ancient times, the most exquisite ancient book engraved in Song and Yuan Dynasties was Chicken Bone Pavilion written by Mao Zijin at the end of Ming Dynasty. The value of these lithographs is much higher than that of ordinary lithographs.

Writing prints means that the first edition is written by people who are good at calligraphy, and sometimes the first edition is written by the author himself. This kind of print is very few, which belongs to the fine woodcut and is also a good product in the collection of ancient books. Because most of these seals are made by famous artists, a page of a book is often a beautiful calligraphy work, which is very rare. Famous ones are Tao Poems engraved by Su Shi in Song Dynasty, Chapters and Sentences of Songs of Chu published by Furong Pavilion in Ming Dynasty and Banqiao Collection by Zheng Banqiao in Qing Dynasty. In addition, Yangzhou Poetry Bureau also published many such prints in Qing Dynasty.

Overprinting, also known as overprinting, is a kind of block printing in which words and pictures of different colors are printed on the same page many times. This color printing technology first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty and matured in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, a lot of Zhu Mo, tricolor and tricolor overprinter were printed. The value of these overprints is often several times higher than that of the ink books of the same period, which has always been a hot spot sought after by collectors. His classic works include Cheng Mo Yuan, Zuo Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period, Dianzhuzhai Painting Spectrum, Dianzhuzhai Annotation Spectrum and so on.

Movable type books, that is, books printed with movable type, were first printed with movable type by Bi Sheng, a civilian in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. He used clay movable type at that time. Since then, ancient movable type books of various materials have appeared one after another. The Yuan Dynasty first printed "Dade Jingdezhen County Records" with wooden movable type; During the reign of Hongzhi and Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, Wuxi Huasui and Anguo successively established copper movable type, and in the Qing Dynasty, a magnetic movable type version of Zhouyi was published. In the seventh year of Xianfeng, the earliest lead movable type book "Liuhe Congtan" came out in Shanghai, which was the first lead type book in modern times. Movable type books occupy a very small share in ancient books. According to records, there are tens of thousands of ancient books that have been handed down to this day, but there are only 220 kinds of movable type books with bibliographies to test, and there are basically no real objects in movable type books before the Ming Dynasty.

At present, what collectors want to collect is basically around the wooden movable type version of Juzhen Edition and the movable type version of Ancient and Modern Books Integration in Qing Dynasty.

Lithography was originally written on paper with a special medical ink. After a little drying, move to the stone surface, and then apply ink to print books. This method was introduced from Europe in the late Qing Dynasty, and it was widely used because it saved the tedious engraving process, and gradually replaced engraving printing.

There are so many ancient books in Shi Yin Ben that people who collected them earlier disdained them. However, with the passage of time, people found that the previous generation of ancient books photocopied in this way were lost, and this historical silver book became a treasure. Therefore, when collecting Shi Yinben, we should pay attention to those photocopies with rare books of Song and Yuan Dynasties and prints of Ming and Qing Dynasties as the background. Ordinary lithographs have little investment value in the collection.

Zhou Haiying said that in the collection of ancient books, we only need to identify the versions of ancient books and grasp that "rare books are earlier than Qianlong; Among the ancient books of the same period, the block print is superior to the printed one; The first carving is better than turning carving; Color matching is better than monochrome; Pictures speak louder than words, which will definitely improve the appreciation ability and find more valuable ancient books.

Discrimination of ancient books

During the interview, Wang Ling Ce recommended four introductory books for the collection of ancient books to reporters, one is Random Talk on Ancient Books Edition written by Mr. Mao Chunxiang, the other is Questions and Answers on Basic Knowledge of Ancient Books, and the other is Introduction to Ancient Books Edition written by Mr. Li Zhizhong and Brief Introduction to Ancient Books Edition written by Mr. Chen Guoqing. Wang Lingce said that the collection of ancient books should not only master the knowledge of ancient books, but also understand some tricks of forging ancient books. There have always been counterfeiters in various collections, and ancient books are no exception. Illegal booksellers arbitrarily change the title and author's name, which can't stop counterfeiters from forging rare books. The cunning of its means makes experts often fall into the dilemma of distinguishing between true and false.

In view of the forgery of ancient books, Wang Lingce believes that there are mainly the following ways:

The title and author of the invention If a book has never been recorded in the previous public or private bibliography, but suddenly appears in the later period, it may be a fake book. For example, Xu Hongzu's Travels of Xu Xiake in the Ming Dynasty was falsified by unscrupulous booksellers as Travels of Famous Mountains, which was deceptive.

The addition and deletion of the inscription and postscript is an important basis for textual research on the publisher, place of publication and year of completion of the book. There are similarities and differences in versions and great differences in prices. Therefore, the addition and deletion of engraving books and cards occurred from time to time in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Although it has not appeared yet, it needs more attention.

Cut and change the preface and postscript, arbitrarily cut and change the content in the preface and postscript, replace the preface and postscript, pretend to be ancient seal cutting, and profit from it.

Versions are mixed with one book written or printed many times, forming a variety of books and mixing them into one book. There are ten volumes of the ancient book "300 Tang Poems", and illegal booksellers stubbornly pieced together three books with different formats and lines, pretending to be Ming Chenghua block prints.

The change catalogue and the in-volume catalogue are the outlines for recording book titles, works, publications and book contents. Illegal booksellers often take advantage of the characteristics of different volumes of the same book because of different publishing houses and publishing times, falsify the number of volumes, delete the catalogue, falsify and fabricate facts, and pass an incomplete book off as a whole book.

Dye paper for worms, fill in ancient books with paper, and forge worms. Dyeing paper for the elderly began in the Ming Dynasty, but it is even worse in modern times.