How to judge the value of rare books of ancient books?

What is a rare book of ancient books? Zhang Zhidong, a Qing Dynasty edition bibliographer, explained: First, it is complete, without abridgement and lack of volumes; Second, the book is fine, the school is fine, the notes are fine, and there are few mistakes; Third, old books, that is, woodcut books, codex books and thread-bound books handed down for a long time. Contemporary scholars interpret rare books of ancient books as follows: first, they are old and have cultural relics; Second, the printed illustrations are exquisite and artistic; Third, the book is incisive and academic. It is expressly stipulated in the National Cultural Relics Law that all cultural relics and books produced 60 years ago (1795) are protected by national laws and may not be exported without permission. Therefore, collectors often regard the fine prints and manuscripts in the early Qing Dynasty or earlier than this time limit as treasures, because at least their historical relics and academic data values are obvious, which determines that their collection and investment values are also quite high. Rare ancient books are easily damaged because they are paper products, such as floods, fires, insects and other natural and human factors. It is not easy to preserve for hundreds of years or even longer, which leads to the scarcity of rare ancient books handed down from generation to generation. Many ancient books are now extinct, and there are many orphans and treasures in the rare ancient books preserved, and some are only a few. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the precious value of rare ancient books.

First, the criteria for judging the value of rare books of ancient books

1, document value The historical materials described in ancient books are very rich and are indispensable first-hand materials for studying ancient society, so the value of ancient books is first reflected in its document value.

2. Version value There are many versions of ancient books. Generally speaking, manuscripts (the author's manuscripts), old manuscripts, original engravings, fine engravings, first editions and various types of movable type paintings are more valuable.

3. Artistic value Some ancient books are exquisitely carved and have a high printing level, such as fine writing, fine carving, various overprint, red seal, arch and so on.

4. Academic value, such as famous manuscripts, refined school-based manuscripts and manuscripts, written manuscripts, approved school-based manuscripts, and manuscripts with unique opinions or rare records in an academic field, all have high academic value.

5. The value of cultural relics Some ancient books, whether copied or engraved, have a long history and are rarely circulated. For example, there are not many books in the Song Dynasty, which are of high archaeological value in terms of paper, ink, printing skills and binding level.

Second, the market price of various rare books of ancient books

In recent years, rare books of ancient books in China are very popular in the auction market, and the prices are rising. For example, a roll of Tang people sold 880 thousand by ink, Yan Jingshu by Xu Hua sold 400 thousand, and rare books of Si Ku Quan Shu sold 290 thousand. The Dalagni Classic of the Ming Dynasty sold for 90,000 yuan, Wang Youdun and Han Shi sold for16,500 yuan during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, and the lotus statue of Chiba in Zhu Tuo sold for 0. Rare books of ancient books have now become the collection products that collectors are scrambling to pursue.

At present, the price of rare books of ancient books on the market is still rising, especially the Song edition or earlier ancient books. At present, books in Song Dynasty are generally priced by page, not by book. The market price of a Song edition book with good pages is about 6.5438+0 million yuan. In other words, a book with 654.38+0 thousand pages can be worth about 6.5438+0 million yuan. Because the Song edition is very rare, its market price is likely to rise further. The market price difference between Yuan version and Song version is not very big, and the market price also appreciates with the rise of Song version. The market price of the Ming edition book is much lower than that of the Song edition book, and its price is relatively stable at present, but the Ming edition book is more expensive than the later Qing edition book. The early version of the Ming Dynasty has been handed down from generation to generation, and the appreciation potential of the early version of the Ming Dynasty should not be underestimated. Due to the existence of various versions in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, its market price will remain stable for quite some time. Due to the large number of books in the Qing Dynasty, the market price of the middle and late Qing editions was not very high. However, the Kangxi and Qianlong editions in the early Qing Dynasty still have high collection and investment value. Books in Qing dynasty were mainly woodcut, and some lithographs appeared in late Qing dynasty. Although the price of the Qing edition is not very high at present, there are still many excellent rare books in this part of the books with a large amount of existence, which depends on the identification ability of collectors. In addition, the lithographs in the early years of the Republic of China and some typesetting and photocopying editions in the 1930s are not rare rare ancient books, but they are also worthy of investors' collection. Rare books of ancient books are very popular in the collectible market in recent years, so various acts of forging rare books of ancient books have emerged.

Three, several forgery techniques of rare books of ancient books.

1, paper is old: paper is the carrier of words. Without paper, there would be no books. Therefore, to judge the authenticity of ancient books, we must first look at whether the paper is outdated. Therefore, to make imitations of ancient books, the paper must be old. There are two kinds of old paper: one is "dyeing paper", which includes boiling water with sugar water, chestnut shells, or tea leaves, or dyeing paper brown in other ways, or fumigating water with cigarettes to make the paper look older; The second is to use "old paper for new printing". If the counterfeiters have ancient paper, they can print the contents of ancient books on paper and then order them as "ancient books". Although this kind of counterfeiting is rare, it is difficult to distinguish whether they are fakes from paper.

2. Forged Preface and Postscript: In some reprinted versions, in addition to the preface and postscript of the original book, new prefaces and postscripts are added to explain the reasons for reprinting, and the name, year and month are also written after the prefaces and postscripts. All these show the true age of books. Forgers often cut off the prefaces and postscripts that are not conducive to their forgery, or change their dates, and also forge prefaces and postscripts that are conducive to their forgery.

3. Forge celebrity inscriptions and hide seals.

4. Forge the card record: keep the old card record, dig out the duplicate card record, or dig out the duplicate card record and change the age.

5. Cut the table of contents: cut part or all of the original table of contents so that people don't know how many volumes there are in the whole book, so that the remaining copies can be used as the whole book.

6. Use descriptive books: Some descriptive books are wrong, and counterfeiters deliberately use them as a basis to sell their fake books.

In a word, there are many methods to falsify rare books of ancient books, sometimes only one or two methods are used, and sometimes various methods may be mixed. In the actual appraisal, collectors should use their own knowledge and related materials to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the appraised ancient books, and experts can be invited to appraise them together. They should pay attention to eliminating the false and retaining the true, so as to truly realize the value of the purchased ancient books.