These fragile glass bottles all had small paper tags with prices attached to them. However, upon reading the tag on the Chinese-style porcelain bottle, Liang En quickly lost interest.
"This is porcelain from China. Look at the exquisite depictions of figures and buildings on it. It's already a steal at 500 euros," the owner, a man in his twenties, eagerly pitched to Liang En in somewhat unpolished English, assuming him to be a tourist.
"Why don't you buy this?" Pierce asked Liang En with a hint of confusion in his Irish-accented English. "I recall that Chinese porcelain has been quite expensive in recent years."
As an antique dealer, Pierce naturally kept an eye on the overall trends in the antique market. Therefore, he found it strange that Liang En wasn't interested in what seemed to him a valuable porcelain vase.
"But not all porcelain is the same," Liang En responded with a touch of resignation, pointing at the vase. "Have you noticed how this piece aligns more with European aesthetics?"
"Indeed, it's quite beautiful," Pierce nodded and continued, "But isn't that the case with fine things? As far as I know, the more something appeals to everyone's aesthetic, the better it is."
"But the issue here is that this piece is actually a late Qing Dynasty 'Wucai' porcelain meant for export," Liang En whispered to Pierce, then took the vase and turned it over with the stall owner's permission.
Sure enough, the base of the vase bore the common inscription "Qianlong Nian Zhi" (Made in the Qianlong Reign). However, what seemed a bit odd was the circle of English text surrounding this square seal: "Made in China."
"When we produce these pieces ourselves, we wouldn't add English to the base inscription," Liang En pointed at the label.
"So, just like the silver cup I showed you earlier, this too is a product meant for export. It's produced in large quantities, and the styles tend to be standardized, so the prices are generally not high."
"For instance, this vase here. You can see how the depictions of the figures on it are quite rigid, and the overall composition doesn't feel very harmonious."
"Therefore, under normal circumstances, this piece wouldn't fetch a high price. Even the highest-quality ones might go for around 2,000 euros. But now, this one, a hundred or two euros is already quite a lot."
"As for the current price tag of 500 euros, I suspect it's specifically meant to trick tourists. At least, I believe most people wouldn't know the normal price for something like this."
The conversation between Liang En and Pierce was conducted entirely in English with a strong Irish accent. While most of the French people present understood English, they wouldn't comprehend this particular English accent that was mostly unfamiliar to Britons.
After putting down the vase, both men felt it wasn't quite right to just look without buying anything, so they decided to purchase a few small items from the stall.
However, there were at least hundreds of items on the stall, and Liang En didn't have the patience to inspect each one individually. So, he decided to use a "Detection (N)" card.
However, this stall had at least several hundred items, and Liang En didn't have the patience to go through them one by one. So, he decided to use a "Detection (N)" card.
Just as this card completely transformed into twinkling specks and disappeared from his mind, a bright light, visible only to him, suddenly flashed from a small trinket on the cloth.
It was a small rabbit sculpture that appeared to be made of copper, about the size of a palm. However, upon holding it, Liang En's unique observational ability noticed some golden traces in certain areas of the sculpture.
"You can have this for 35 euros," the vendor enthusiastically introduced when he saw Liang En pick up the copper sculpture. "This is a pre-Napoleon-era bronze sculpture, possibly related to the royal family."
"You can't just say it's related to the royal family because it has a fleur-de-lis emblem," Liang En held the sculpture in his hand and turned it around, then discovered a fleur-de-lis emblem unique to the French royal family beneath the sculpture.
"Yes, if it only had the emblem, naturally one couldn't make such a claim. But if you closely examine the craftsmanship of this sculpture, you'll realize that it's not something an ordinary artisan could create."
"Alright then, I'll take it. Wrap it up for me," Liang En said as he took out cash from his pocket, counted out 35 euros, and handed it over.
Meanwhile, beside him, Pierce spent 15 euros on a lighter made from a bullet casing. After all, the proximity to the French-German border meant war-related artifacts were not uncommon.
"Did you find something good just now?" After leaving the small market, Pierce immediately asked Liang En. They had been roommates for a few years, so he could sense that Liang En had likely made a good find.
"Yes, take a closer look here." Liang En pointed at a small section near the tips of the bronze rabbit's ears. "You'll notice that there's a layer of oxidized bronze-colored paint on the surface of this rabbit, but underneath, it's gold."
"Which means someone painted a layer of paint on this object to conceal its true identity," after taking out a small magnifying glass and examining it for a while, Pierce also realized something.
"During the late 18th century, the Rococo style was in vogue within the French royal family. This rabbit's graceful form perfectly aligns with the style popular at that time. If it were gilded—"
As a bona fide student of archaeology, upon Liang En's reminder, Pierce also noticed some peculiarities on the small sculpture.
At least during that era, being able to craft such a lifelike small sculpture with gilding as decoration wasn't something just any craftsman could achieve, not even a royal, but perhaps only certain prominent nobles.
Determining that this object was gilded was straightforward. Upon holding the entire sculpture, one could distinctly feel that it wasn't heavy and it wasn't hollow inside, indicating it wasn't made of gold.
"But what do you think this sculpture is for?" After inspecting the sculpture, Pierce looked curiously at the rabbit statue.
"If it's meant as a pendant or piece of jewelry, this item is simply too large. Besides, I haven't found any components for fastening it onto something," Liang En said while turning the object in his hands.
"But if it's intended as a simple sculpture, then it's too small in size. It's hard to imagine where such a small item could be appropriately placed, and it doesn't even have a base to stand on."
"I think it might have been meant for placement on furniture, or perhaps as a part of certain furniture," Liang En flipped the object around. "Once we get back and remove the surface paint, we'll probably be able to figure out what this thing really is. Right now, it's coated in a thick layer of paint, and even if there are clues, they're likely hidden."
Initially, Liang En had thought of using a "Identification (N)" card to determine the nature of this artifact.
However, later he realized that since he already had the object in his possession and it wasn't going to disappear on its own, there was no need to waste a card just to find out the truth a few days earlier.
As for why the person had sold this thing, it was simple. Currently, this object merely looked like a copper rabbit and didn't appear valuable at all. So, they simply put it on the stall, selling it for whatever price it could fetch.