The reporter who rushed to the front, after arriving at the second floor, looked around and saw no trace of anyone.

The antique clock collection area on the left side of the second floor looks like a museum, and the reporters unconsciously stopped sounding.

If it weren't for the Gavot dance music being played at this time, it might have been a long time before those who came to the second floor would have noticed that behind a large copper gilded antique bell in the open work area, there was a person who had lost all his breath and was working with his head down.

The photographer turned the camera one after another, capturing the scenes of key figures.

Wherever the camera reaches, there is always only a beautiful antique clock, and it is impossible to take a clear picture of the face of the person working behind the clock.

The photojournalist's lens was frozen involuntarily after a few seconds of stay.

The ingenious antique clock in front of me is so attractive that the reporters forget that they are trying to grab the right to ask questions.

Five minutes after the agreed-upon, the reporters all came up without waiting for two minutes.

The person who works with a magnifying glass that repairs the clock and works with his head down, doesn't seem to mind the photographer's camera staring at the clock in front of him.

Not only did it not interrupt, but it also started to explain in a voice that was as textured as this antique clock and much better than the museum's professional explanation:

[What you see is a bronze gilt Taiping Youxiang Water Method Turning Flower Musical Ringing Bell.

This was customized by British watchmaker Pete Tokler in the 1780s for the Qianlong Dynasty. It is 102 cm high, fifty cm long and 29.5 cm wide.

It leaked out of China in 1890 and became a collection of King Nasserdin Shah Kazar of the Caga Dynasty, and was handed over to the royal family. It was later inherited by the Pahlavi dynasty of the Kingdom of Iran.

This self-ringing bell first entered the auction in 1925 and became a private collection in the UK.

The last three auctions were in London, the first two were in Bonhams auction number 199 on May 28, 2002, and the Sotheby's "Treasure? Prince's Taste" special auction number 21 on July 4, 2012. The most recent one was 36.225 million sold in China at Poly Auction House on December 8, 2015.

I sent it to the studio for repair and maintenance today.

If you like this clock, you can push the camera closer at your current position, but please don't keep getting closer.]

The intangible cultural heritage inheritor who is working with his head down is still completing the final restoration process.

I don’t know if it was because the value of the clock was so scary, or if everyone realized that they had just come up before they had just listened to the precautions. After all the reporters stopped almost at the same time after stunning the years and said, “Please don’t get close”.

The atmosphere at the scene was a little strange. The people who came up seemed to have forgotten their original intentions, as if they were just coming to the museum to appreciate a top-level antique clock.

I didn't hear anyone's footsteps rashly step forward again, and the commentary on the musical sounding of the bronze gilded Taiping Youxiang Water Method Turning Flowers was ringing again:

[This clock is divided into five layers in total, and the mechanical transmission part is powered by five-disc clockwork.

The bottom layer is four strong men of the Qing Dynasty holding a music box inlaid with eight bronze gilded landscapes.

The layer above the music box is a copper gilt stone base, with a white enamel three-pin dial on the front and a white enamel converter music disc on the back.

There are six music songs in total, and what you hear now is the first Gawalter dance song.

The third floor in the middle is the most performing copper gilt elephant, which is also a function that needs to be repaired today.

The fourth floor above the elephant is a hexagonal pavilion.

Sitting inside the pavilion was the Greek god Atlas. The sphere he held in his hand was a rotating zodiac theodolite.

On the top of the pavilion are rotatable double-layer stone flowers.

The fifth layer on the top is the copper gilt rotating pineapple flower.

This self-tone clock, which combines Chinese and Western styles, is exquisitely crafted and exquisitely conceived. In addition to walking, tuning, playing music and rotating, it also represents the most complex performance function in the history of world watches.

The copper gilded Taiping Youxiang Water Method Turning Flower Musical Self-Cylinder was designed in the UK and was also produced in the UK, representing the highest watchmaking process in the world at that time.

In Europe, local clocks that have achieved such craftsmanship all have a very Chinese name - Qianlong clock.

This bronze gilded bell will start performing every three hours at the hour of three, six, nine, and twelve.

I'll now turn the pointer to twelve o'clock.

If the camera is pulled closer, you can see the elephant's lifelike performance.

The eyes are turning, the ears are swaying forward and backward, and the tail is swaying left and right.

The most important thing is that the part of the elephant trunk can not only rotate at a constant speed, but also rotate at the same time to sway left and right.

This is very special.

The elephant cultural clock that exists now can only rotate the elephant trunk in one direction except for the one you see in front of you.

This is the only clock that truly realizes the superposition of two directions of motion.

As you can see, the elephant trunk can also control the reciprocating movement while rotating and lifting.

Such craftsmanship is the most unique and extremely rare in the 1780s and now.

There are similar elephant cultural clocks in the Forbidden City in Beijing, the most famous of which is the copper gilt elephant pipa pendulum bell.

However, the performance function of the elephant pipa pendulum clock is far less novel and changeable than the one in front of you.

Other Taiping Elephant Clocks collected by the Forbidden City cannot achieve this level of mechanical movement control, and the elephant's nose can only complete one-way rotation.] (Note)

The voices of the explanations are too clear and nice. People who are close to each other are immersed in the young man's explanation and forget why they have to come up.

The people in the back row could not see the performance details of the clock, and still remembered the reporter who was about to ask questions, but they did not dare to squeeze forward, for fear that they would accidentally break tens of millions of antique clocks.

A reporter started shouting in the back row that everyone had to ask the question first as soon as they came up: "How did you find that the consignment form taken by the heir of Mai was problematic, and how did you join hands with the pawnshop to record conclusive evidence?"

============

【Note:】

The performance function of the antique clock is not easy to imagine.

"Fourth of Love" is a bit slow.

This story about clocks, craftsman spirit, and dreams finally put down the half-covered pipa.

Xiao Mo will post a series of important props with pictures in the book review area of ​​"Fourth of Love".

If you are interested in the clocks written in the book, you can go to the book review area to check it out.
Chapter completed!