Once both sides agreed to the new rules, Zhou Fangzun and the others immediately stepped back, leaving Jun Wangchen and Huo Feixing to select antiques in the room.
Both men moved slowly, their eyes sweeping over the antiques before them. Every so often, they frowned in thought, looking thoroughly absorbed.
"He Xuren's Snow Scene Landscape Porcelain emphasizes three planes in its composition: foreground, middle ground, and distance. Overlapping mountains and intersecting slopes and banks create orderly layers. Rich black outlines the mountain ridges, while ocher texture strokes and washes establish light and shade. The inkwork is elegant, lustrous, and assured, its progression carefully ordered. Powdered pigment and reserved white areas then convey the snow." Huo Feixing seemed to have discovered something. He stopped and deliberately spoke aloud.
"When applying the colors, he overcame the limited tonal range of snow scenes by cleverly incorporating the glass-white pigment used in famille rose into snowy landscapes. This allowed him to vary the pigments' intensity freely, producing lifelike snow and well-defined layers. The result has both the soft richness of traditional color filling and the vitality of expressive painting. He sought a crystalline effect through thin applications, particularly in his rendering of snow mist and the sky. The subtle gradations reveal extraordinary skill. Its price should fall between five and ten million."
Zhou Fangzun nodded at this, then looked at Huo Sanjian with a smile. "An excellent assessment and an accurate valuation. Master Huo, Feixing truly deserves to be your successor. His appraisal skills are beyond question."
"Not at all. This boy still falls far short of our young friend Jun," Huo Sanjian said, shaking his head, though a trace of pride crossed his face.
He had watched Huo Feixing grow up. The boy had shown a talent for appraising antiques from childhood, and