Chapter 20 (1/2)

”This is good stuff,” after a long time, Shen Bingde exhaled deeply and said. ”Although this Doc.u.ments of Dispatches of the North Song Dynasty was just official paperwork, its seal is intact, characteristic and incredibly well-preserved.” Looking at the right of the paperwork, he continued, ”However, seal collection stopped in the Republic of China. What a shame!”

Huang Xuan laughed secretly, ”Of course it is well preserved. Although it has changed hands several times, it has been taken good care of.” As for the fact that seal collection had stopped in the Republic of China, Huang Xuan felt lucky about it. If it had continued, Huang Xuan himself would have been doomed.

Seeing that Huang Xuan smiled and didn't say a word, Liu Ziqing asked, ”Lao1 Shen, what's the estimated price?”

”I need more time to work on it, but I am thinking of at least 1.5 million,” Shen Bingde said conservatively.

The setting of an estimated price took a lot of work. In auction houses, since each word you said represented your professional standard, the experts were very cautious about their work, especially about the appraisal, which they usually compared and weighed again and again. On the one hand, people in different times had different mentalities, hence held different opinions on the same article. For example, a modern fauvism work would have been thrown away directly if it had been shown in the Renaissance. On the other hand, the same article could be sold at different prices in different auction houses, which increased the difficulty in price estimation.

Hearing Shen Bingde's words, Huang Xuan nodded his head slightly. Compared to Rolin's estimated price, 2.2-3.2 million, Shen Bingde's was ¥700,000 lower, but it was inevitable. Usually, when the deal was concluded at a price higher than the estimated price, n.o.body would blame the appraiser. Instead, they would thank the auctioneer. However, if the price was estimated too high, n.o.body would want that to happen.

Liu Ziqing took the casket from Shen Bingde. The paperwork was handwritten copies from the second year of Mingdao2 to the sixth year of Huangyou3 of the North Song Dynasty, i.e. 1033-1054, consisted of ten pieces of white hemp paper. He looked at the paperwork again and again, and then said with a smile, ”Mr. Huang has a rich collection. Are you going to sell it to a private buyer this time or in an auction house?”

”If somebody is willing to buy it at the price of 2.8 million, I will sell it. Otherwise, I will consider auction.” Huang Xuan settled the price in the middle. Although he still lacked money, he was unwilling to sell the fruit of his labor cheap.

Liu Ziqing nodded excitedly and said, ”Don't worry, Mr. Huang. I will be well-prepared.”

”That will be good.” Huang Xuan glanced at Shen Bingde secretly. Seeing that he remained composed after he had shown distrust in his appraisal, Huang Xuan was relaxed. Apparently, this was a shrewd and deep one. Huang Xuan smiled and said, ”Thank you, Mr. Liu. You know, people alway hope to sell their things at a higher price. But if the paperwork is sold at auction, you won't get the commission.”

”Of course,” Liu Ziqing said. Huang Xuan had promised a 5% commission, but at the auction, he could get 12%. Therefore, to him, he could get a commission either way.

Huang Xuan wasn't aware of that. He put the paperwork away carefully, thought and said, ”I have ten other ancient books, which I also want to sell in the coming days. I hope Mr. Liu could help find the buyers.”

”Er…” Liu Ziqing had been ready to leave. Hearing this, he said with some awkwardness, ”Mr. Huang, I trust you, but there is a rule in this business saying that we must see the articles first.”

This was unexpected. Huang Xuan had thought that he only needed to have one of the books authenticated. After some thinking, he said, ”It is inconvenient to take them out now anyway. I can give you the names. It will be the best if there are private buyers. If not, I will bring them to the auction house.”

If he could get millions more to buy oil, he would be able to fool Rolin for a while. The rest wasn't urgent. Pretending to be writing the names of the books, Huang Xuan opened his mouth a little and said to Rolin, ”What are the names of the books? How to spell them?”