Coral, the English name of Coral, comes from the Latin Corrallium. Coral is one of the important organic gemstones, and it is also a favorite gemstone variety at all times and at home and abroad. The ancient Romans believed that coral had the functions of preventing disasters, giving people wisdom, stopping bleeding and expelling heat, and it was also found in Tibetan medicine in China and Tibet. Coral is closely related to Buddhism. Buddhists in India, China and Tibet regard red coral as the incarnation of Tathagata. They regard coral as a mascot for offering sacrifices to the Buddha, which is often used to make beads or decorate statues. This is a very precious jewel.
Coral is the only living Millennium spirit in jewelry, charming, shining, crystal clear, warm and pleasant. Three organic gems in the west: coral, pearl and amber; Seven treasures of oriental Buddhism: gold, silver, amber, coral, dragonfly, coloured glaze and agate. In ancient times, coral was regarded as an auspicious and happy thing, representing nobility and power, also known as "Ruibao", and a symbol of happiness and eternity.
Coral grows at a depth of 200 -2000 meters, which is extremely difficult to mine. Coral only grows one inch in 20 years and one kilogram in 300 years. For thousands of years, despite the wind and waves, it still stands. It is for this reason that coral has become a unique Millennium treasure in people's minds.
Coral is a calcareous skeleton secreted by coral, so corals with loose texture and gem-grade processing density are very rare and extremely precious. Up to now, precious corals cannot be produced by artificial breeding, and their survival and growth conditions are influenced and limited by many factors in the natural environment, such as sunlight, water temperature and pressure of seawater, salt content of seawater, flow rate, food richness and health status. Due to the increasingly serious marine pollution, it is difficult to collect precious corals in the deep sea, which shows their rarity and preciousness.
There are many kinds of corals, which can be divided into white corals, light pink or dark corals and pink corals. You can see black corals (that is, sea trees) in Hawaii. Among them, red coral, blue coral and black coral are the most precious. Take red coral as an example, there is a saying called "Millennium Coral Wan Nianhong". Red coral is precious because of its slow growth, long life, strong quality, bright color and rare output. /kloc-In the middle of the 0/6th century, the red coral trade along the Mediterranean coast was very prosperous, thus creating many valuable red coral masterpieces. The harvest of red coral in the world today is between 100 tons and 400 tons every year, and its price is several times or even dozens of times that of gold. In many auctions, the price of red coral works is also surprisingly high. When coral is made into exquisite ornaments or carved into famous works of art, its value doubles. A good red coral necklace is worth several thousand yuan, and the highest one can reach tens of thousands of yuan. In particular, some exquisite and precious corals produced in the Strait of Taiwan Province Province, China, are unique national treasures in China.
From the artistic and cultural point of view, a coral sculpture is no less difficult and challenging to create than any other works of art, and each coral has a different shape. Only after careful design, ingenious conception and careful carving by craftsmen can it become a handicraft, so each coral work is unique and unique. For this reason, people are keen on collecting valuable coral works of art, which is reasonable. There are many exquisite coral collections in the Louvre, and many museums in China also have rich coral collections.
Common sense: imitation coral and identification
(1) Dyed marble: uniform red, granular structure, no concentric structure in section, no uniform stripes. Wipe with a cotton swab dipped in acetone, and the cotton swab appears red. (2) Pink glass: glass luster, bubble-containing, conchoidal fracture, no bubble in hydrochloric acid. (3) Pink plastic: it does not have the unique banded structure of coral, but it has traces left by using the mold, and does not foam when it meets hydrochloric acid. (4) "gilson" synthetic coral: fine-grained structure, no banded structure, slightly different in color or transparency from natural coral, with a density of 2.45g/cm3, which is smaller than natural coral. Quality Classification and Evaluation of Coral (Continued)
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Taiwan Province Province produced the most red corals in the world in 1970s and 1980s. Red corals are mainly distributed in the Diaoyu Islands, Batu waters between Taiwan Province Province and the Philippines, Penghu to Hong Kong, Guam, Midway Island and other Pacific islands. However, according to the data in recent years, the output of red coral and pink coral in Taiwan Province Province and the South China Sea has dropped sharply, which has severely hit the booming coral fishing and processing industry in Taiwan Province Province, but the industry of dyeing white coral has developed. It is said that a small amount of pink corals are also produced in the waters near Xiamen and Xisha Islands in China, but the output is extremely limited.
The most important thing in coral processing is cutting. Corals of different sizes and colors often have different uses and processing methods.
First of all, large corals with certain shapes are often preserved by pruning to design large handicrafts or decorations, while smaller coral branches are processed into jewelry or ornaments. Some red corals can be cut and polished into rings, pendants, or carved into pins, necklaces and other jewels. However, some red and pink corals with poor color or texture are used to add and process various handicrafts, such as bead chains, cufflinks or other accessories that match clothes.
Among all coral species, it is of high value for carving. Before designing the sculpture, the designer chooses the theme and shape of the sculpture according to the size, tree shape, branch distribution, color and texture of the coral trunk, and then performs artistic performances according to the materials. A good coral work is both a jewel and an artistic crystal. Design should not only reflect the artistic skill of the creator, but also conform to the characteristics of coral itself. Only the complementary designs can fully show the texture and value of coral. Therefore, for carved coral, craft is a very important part of its value.
Naples, Italy has always been the most important red coral processing center. Japan and Taiwan Province Province are important distribution centers and processing centers for ordinary gem-grade corals. China's gem coral raw materials are mainly imported from Taiwan Province Province and Japan.
At present, the world coral market is mainly in Europe, the United States and Japan. Some internationally influential jewelry companies, such as Canil and T "Anny, sometimes use high-quality red coral, blue coral or golden black coral to design and make high-priced jewelry. Arabs and Indians prefer bright red corals in the international market, while pink corals are popular in Europe, America and Japan. Pink coral is the main coral jewelry in the mass jewelry market. At the Hong Kong International Jewelry Fair every year, more than a dozen jewelry companies from Taiwan Province Province, Hong Kong and Japan sell coral raw materials and accessories. Among them, coral beads are the largest, followed by small handicrafts and ladies' ornaments made of coral.
Although red coral is also a very famous gem in the history of our country, in fact, high-quality red coral products are few and far between, and are often confined to the hands of the royal family and nobles. Many large corals are used as bonsai or decorations to show off their wealth, and some coral ornaments circulated by the people are mostly low-quality or dyed. At present, in the China market, in addition to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major political, cultural and commercial centers and some provincial capitals, natural gem-grade coral ornaments or products can be found in some high-end commercial buildings, and the relatively concentrated markets may be Tibet and Ningxia. Because both Tibetans and Hui people have the cultural concept that coral and turquoise are a godsend and can ward off evil spirits, many Tibetan monks and even ordinary nomadic women have the habit of using coral and turquoise as beads or ornaments, so it is a relatively formed coral consumption market in China. Coral ornaments seen in tourist markets or some handicraft distribution centers are mostly of poor quality or dyed. In recent years, there have been companies specializing in or concurrently dealing in coral, but as far as the current situation is concerned, there are few such jewelry companies in China, only a few dealer companies in Taiwan Province Province and Hongkong.
Third, the valuation of coral.
"Gegu Yaolun" said: "Coral was born at the bottom of the sea and mountains, and the sea people took it with iron nets. Its color is bright red, the tree is tall and has many branches, its price is light and its eyes are reddish. This thing is noble and humble, and it goes with pearls. This passage not only tells the ancient people's views on the quality of coral, but also tells the price of coral. But in fact, it is still very difficult to identify corals in China market. Because the factors affecting the price are complicated, it is impossible to correspond the quality and price one by one according to the quality classification, so the accuracy of the appraisal depends largely on the appraiser's grasp of the coral price in the international market and his market experience.
Generally speaking, in the international market, coral raw materials are priced in kilograms or pounds, but for some large-scale high-quality red corals, the price is determined by plants. With the output of high-quality coral decreasing year by year, the price of high-quality red coral in the international market is increasing year by year.
1998, the special-grade and first-class red coral in Hong Kong International Jewelry Fair, the price per plant can reach tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. The general price of second-and third-grade red corals ranges from several hundred to several thousand Hong Kong dollars per pound.
Coral is one of the important treasures in the history of China and one of the seven treasures of Buddhism. The stupa in the Buddha's Sakyamuni Temple is decorated with seven kinds of treasures, including coral. Indians believe that coral is the father of mountains and rivers. At least in the Jin Dynasty, Chinese courts began to decorate corals as gems, and the stories of Wang Kai, a famous rich man in the Western Jin Dynasty, and Fu Bi, Shi Chong, were based on corals. In the Qing dynasty, red coral was still the top hat of the second-class official rank, and it was also a Chinese medicine that could soothe the nerves and improve eyesight. Coral has always been a precious material for craftsmen in China to display their talents. For the whole red coral, artists in China often cherish every branch on it, even branches the size of rice grains are looking for treasure. Taiwan Province Province has become the most important place for producing, frying and processing corals in the world jewelry market in modern times, so some people think that corals are one of the most representative precious gems in China.
Craft crystals carved from super or first-class red coral have the greatest price elasticity, which mainly depends on the carving process and production company, and their prices range from thousands to tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. In China, some high-quality red coral craft crystals carved by craft masters can even become priceless, so the valuation of this kind of coral should be cautious. In the international market, some jewelry, such as rings or beaded necklaces, made of super-grade and first-class red corals are mainly priced according to their size and collocation. The 5 mm× 7 mm-8 mm× 10 mm denier torus generally ranges from HK$ 300 to HK$ 600 per gram. A 16 inch necklace with a diameter of 8- 10 mm is around several thousand Hong Kong dollars, and the quantity is not much. The price of necklaces with 5-8 mm round beads ranges from several hundred to thousands of Hong Kong dollars.
Jewelry processed with secondary and tertiary raw materials, with a torus of 5 mm× 7 mm-8mm× 10 mm, costs 80-400 Hong Kong dollars/gram and a bead diameter of 8 mm- 12 mm, costs 300-2000 Hong Kong dollars. ..
Other coral ornaments range from a few Hong Kong dollars to several hundred Hong Kong dollars each.
The price of dyed coral is generally 1/5- 1/8 of the price of natural coral with the same color. As a general rule, the higher the price of natural coral, the greater the price gap with dyeing.