You have obvious cast lines on this handle, which is probably fake.

Bronze hand stoves, also known as "sleeve stoves", "hand fumigation" and "fire cages", are palm heating tools widely used in the old court and even among the people. There is an explanation in Ci Hai that the small stoves that warm hands in winter are mostly made of copper. With the development and change of the times, the bronze hand stove has withdrawn from the stage of life and gradually been forgotten. But since the early 1990s, bronze hand stoves have frequently appeared in books, magazines and auction houses. It attracts people's attention with its rich and peculiar modeling and exquisite and gorgeous technology. ......

In this special case, some antique dealers must be driven by economic interests and make profits by imitating hand stoves. So a large number of fakes came into being, flooding the antique market dominated by Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. In the long-term practice of collecting hand stoves, the author summarizes the positive and negative experiences and lessons, and summarizes the following identification points for collectors' reference:

L before the song dynasty, there were no brass and white copper, only bronze and pure copper. Bronze is not suitable for hand stoves. Pure copper with zinc as the main element is brass, and nickel with white copper as the main element. It is difficult for us to know when yellow and white copper became solid, but it is clear that bronzes before the Song Dynasty, except bronze, were all pure copper. After the Qing dynasty, yellow and white copper prevailed, and brass was used later than white copper. You can see the foot of the hand stove when you identify it. If there is brass exposed, we can judge the articles in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. For example, red copper can be divided into two aspects, with a sense of simplicity and massiness, elegant and exquisite decoration, which can generally reach the Ming Dynasty; For example, it is light and exquisite, mostly hand stoves in the Qing Dynasty.

2. Rust color is the unique beauty of ancient bronzes, and it is also the focus of identifying hand stoves. Common rust colors are green rust, red rust, black rust and purple rust. The type and depth of rust color can not be used as the basis of authenticity, which is related to the geographical environment and the composition of copper. All fake rust, no matter what color, will fall off and be exposed when it is brushed with boiling water with alkali; If the glass rust is forged, it can be ironed with a soldering iron. The counterfeiter will smell of rosin and glue, but it will not change. If rust is forged with salt water and brine, you can lick it on your tongue. Everything with salty taste is forged. Moreover, the fake rust has different shades and cannot be integrated with the body. There is no slippery feeling when rubbing with your hands.

Hand stoves are basically made by hand, and most imitations are cast. We can distinguish it from the welding seam between the foot and the furnace body and the working mode of the mesh of the furnace cover.

The most important thing is that the pattern of the hand stove is carved by hand, also called "bronze carving". The strokes of entering copper are V-shaped, with a wide upper part and a sharp lower part, with occasional knife slip. Each painting has different shades (including small round chisels and dots), and the joint between the mouth and the plane is clean, flat and sharp. Fine paintings can be made into silk. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Chihuahua developed into an independent art, especially during Xianfeng and Tongzhi years, Chihuahua reached its peak in bronze ware. Therefore, exquisite handicrafts with full patterns are basically the products of this period.

Judging from the counterfeit hand stoves, it is very common to imitate famous people. We should not only pay attention to the form and font of brushwork, but also pay attention to the fineness of the process, especially whether the pattern of the furnace cover is fine and whether the brushwork is realistic. Its workmanship is not up to standard, so it must be a fake.

The identification of bronze hand stoves mainly includes the following aspects:

1 understand the payment

The famous bronze hand stoves in Ming and Qing Dynasties were mainly made by famous craftsmen such as Zhang, Pan Feng and Xiang. Most of the words are engraved in the middle of the furnace bottom. The font is engraved with Xiao Zhuan, which is vigorous and natural, smooth and free, and the engraver seems comfortable. Imitation fonts are rigid, rough, stiff and shallow.

Among the above brands, the bronze hand stove with the word "Zhang" is more common, which shows that Zhang's brand is louder than other brands.

Zhang was born in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province in the late Ming Dynasty. The bronze furnace he made was comparable to the teapot made by Shi Dabin at that time, which was called "big pot and ringing furnace" at that time. Zhang made a bronze hand stove out of polished copper. Copper is pure and plastic. The copper hand stove made by Zhang is made by hammering. Manual polishing is the same as mechanical polishing, which makes people feel delicate, moist and jade-like. The copper furnace made by him has a thick matrix and obvious hand feeling, but the furnace cover is particularly thin. The furnace cover and the furnace body are perfectly stitched and naturally integrated. The carving technology on the furnace cover is exquisite, and the carved patterns are exquisite and incomparable, which is a rare treasure.

2 look at the material

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, bronze hand stoves made by famous artists mostly used pure copper and purple copper. A good copper hand stove must be made by a good worker. Its decoration process can't be made of ordinary copper, only good materials have good plasticity. After the middle and late Qing dynasty, many bronze furnaces were imitation Ming famous furnaces. Due to the limitation of materials, most of them are brass and white copper, and the craftsmanship of craftsmen is low. Therefore, after the middle and late Qing dynasty, the imitation copper furnace was rough in technology and irregular in shape. The furnace cover is not tightly combined with the furnace body, and the gap is large.

3 look at the craft

The production process of bronze hand stove combines other works of art. There are gold plating, silver plating, inlaying, carving, carving, wrong gold and wrong silver, beating, grinding and so on. Every process is done by hand, and it can't be done well without many years of production experience and skilled skills.

4 look at the ornamentation

Rare and rare bronze hand stove, its decorative pattern is also very rare. The decorative patterns of bronze hand stoves in Ming Dynasty are mainly reflected in the furnace cover, including flowers, geometric patterns, figures and so on. The pattern is fine and sparse. The decorative patterns of bronze hand stoves in Ming Dynasty were not only popular on the stove cover, but also less on the stove body, and the decorative patterns of figures, landscapes and animals were less than those in Qing Dynasty. In the Qing dynasty, bronze hand stoves were more popular with full-ware ornamentation, which was complicated and fine. Besides the decorative patterns of flowers, geometric figures and characters, the decorative patterns of landscape figures and animals are also more popular.

5 Look at the patina

The Ming Dynasty bronze hand stoves were made of copper and copper, so after hundreds of years of use, their patina color was shiny, red-purple, red-yellow, and the paint surface was black. Bronze hand stoves in Qing dynasty are made of brass and white copper, with dry patina and no luster. The patina color of bronze hand stoves in Qing dynasty is obviously not the patina color of bronze hand stoves in Ming dynasty.