As fragile items, these bottles all had small notes with prices attached to them. However, after seeing the small note on the Chinese-style porcelain bottle, Leonard Ethan immediately lost interest.
"This is a porcelain piece from China, look at how exquisitely these figures and houses are painted. Selling it for 500 euros is already very cheap."
The twenty-something owner apparently thought Leonard Ethan was a tourist and tried hard to sell it using his not-so-fluent English.
"Why don't you buy this?" Pierce asked Leonard Ethan in English with an Irish accent, puzzled. "I remember that Chinese porcelain has been selling quite expensive in recent years."
As an antique dealer, Pierce naturally paid attention to the overall trends of the antique market. So he was somewhat curious as to why Leonard Ethan did not buy this porcelain bottle that seemed quite valuable in his eyes.
"Not all porcelain bottles are the same," Leonard Ethan said helplessly, pointing to the bottle. "Don't you think that this bottle is more like the European aesthetic?"
"Indeed, I find it quite beautiful," Pierce nodded and then said, "But isn't that the case with good things? As far as I know, the more everyone finds it aesthetically pleasing, the better."
"But the problem is that this is actually export enameled gold porcelain from the late Qing Dynasty in China," Leonard Ethan whispered to Pierce. Then, with the stall owner's permission, he picked up the bottle and turned it over.
Sure enough, the bottom of the bottle bore the most common seal, "Made in the Qianlong Year." However, what was slightly strange was that the English words "Made in China" surrounded this square seal.
"We would never have added English to the seal when we made this ourselves," Leonard Ethan pointed out the label.
"So this is just like the silver cup I just looked at, both are only for export products. They are not only mass-produced but also have relatively standardized styles, so the overall price is not high."
"For example, this vase is like that. You can see that the figures painted on it are very stiff, and the overall composition of the scene also doesn't feel very harmonious."
"So under normal circumstances, this thing could not be sold at a good price. The very top quality ones only sell for about two thousand euros, and now this one, for one to two hundred euros, would already be a lot."
"As for the current price tag of 500 euros, I guess it's specifically for swindling tourists' money. At least I believe that most people are not clear about the normal price of this thing."
Leonard Ethan and Pierce's entire conversation was in heavily accented Irish English. Although most of the French people present could understand English, they didn't have to worry about being overheard since even most British people couldn't understand this kind of English.
After putting the bottle down, both of them felt it was not good to just look and not buy, so they decided to buy some small items from this stall.
However, there were at least hundreds of items on this stall, and Leonard Ethan didn't have the patience to look through them one by one. So he chose to use a [Detection (N)] card.
Just as this card completely disappeared into specks of light in his mind, a bright light that only he could see flashed on a small trinket on the cloth.
It was a palm-sized bronze rabbit sculpture that looked to be made from copper. However, when Leonard Ethan picked it up with his unique observational ability, he noticed some traces of gold on some parts of the small sculpture.
"You can have this for 35 euros," the stall owner introduced enthusiastically after seeing Leonard Ethan pick up the bronze sculpture. "This is a bronze sculpture from before the Napoleon era and may be related to the royal family."
"You can't say it has something to do with the royal family just because it has a fleur-de-lis mark." Leondard Ethan took the sculpture and turned it around in his hands, finding a unique fleur-de-lis mark, a symbol of the French royal family, at the base of the sculpture.
"Yes, if it only had the mark, we couldn't say that naturally. But if you look closely at the craftsmanship of this sculpture, you'll find that it couldn't be made by an ordinary craftsman."
"Alright, I'll take this one. Wrap it up for me." Leonard Ethan said as he took out cash from his pocket and handed over 35 euros.
Next to him, Pierce also spent 15 euros to buy a lighter made of a bullet shell. After all, they were not far from the Franco-German border, so war relics were not uncommon.
"Did you find something good just now?" As soon as they left the small market, Pierce immediately asked Leonard Ethan. Having been roommates for several years, he could tell that Leonard Ethan probably picked up a bargain.
"Yes, take a close look at this part." Leonard Ethan pointed to a small section at the tips of the bronze rabbit's ears. "You'll find that the surface of this rabbit is painted with a layer of oxidized bronze color, but underneath it is gold."
"So, someone painted over it with bronze to hide the real identity of this small statue." After scrutinizing it with a small magnifying glass, Pierce began to understand what was going on.
"In the late 18th century, the French royal family was all about the Rococo style, and this rabbit's delicate shape perfectly matches the fashion of the time. If you add gold-plating - "
As a professional archaeologist studying at a prestigious university, Pierce also noticed some peculiarities about this small statue after Leonard Ethan pointed them out.
At least in that era, even if it wasn't the royal family, only a significant noble would be able to create such a lifelike, small statue and use gold-plating for decoration.
Determining that it was gold-plated was simple: when they held the whole statue in their hand, it didn't feel heavy, and since it wasn't hollow on the inside, it couldn't be solid gold.
"But what do you think this statue was used for?" After examining the statue, Pierce curiously looked at the rabbit statue.
"If it were a pendant or jewelry, it would be too large. And I haven't found any parts on it that could be used to fix it in any specific place."
"But if it were a purely decorative sculpture, it's too small. It's hard to imagine where on earth it would be appropriate to place such a small item, and it also doesn't have a base for display."
"I think it might be a part of a piece of furniture or mounted on furniture." Leonard Ethan said after flipping the item over a few times. "
Once we remove the surface paint when we get back, we should be able to figure out what this thing is. Now that it's covered in a thick layer of paint, any clues would be hidden."
In fact, at first, Leonard Ethan wanted to use [Identification (N)] to find out what kind of treasure this was.
But later, he thought that since the item was already in his possession and wouldn't run away, there was no need to waste a card to find out the truth a few days earlier.
As for why the person sold it, it was simple: it looked like a copper rabbit at the moment and didn't seem valuable, so they just put it on their stall, ready to sell it for whatever little money they could.