Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Treasure of the town shop
The clocks here dazzled Yang Jing.
Seeing Yang Jing walking in, an old man who seemed to be more than sixty years old greeted him and said with a smile: “Welcome to the world of time. I think I can meet most of your requirements for time. Hello, guests from the East, I’m Jean Armand, the owner of this shop.”
To Yang Jing’s surprise, this old man with a typical French name turned out to be very fluent in English, and he was still very authentic in London, with no French accent.
Yang Jing said with a smile: “Hello, Mr. Armand, I like your atmosphere very much. I am Abbott Yang from China.”
“Well, young and promising Yang, do you need anything for me to serve you?” The old man is polite, very similar to the traditional British butlers that Yang Jing often sees, but Yang Jing always feels that this old man Something was not quite right, as if the old man was indeed polite on the surface, but there was a faint arrogance and a trace of discrimination in his expression.
Yang Jing has been in London for two years. It is common for Chinese to be discriminated against in Europe. Therefore, Yang Jing is very sensitive to this attitude. Of course, this old man may be because of the opening of the shop, and the discriminatory expression is well hidden.
Since the old man did not show any obvious discrimination, Yang Jing said politely: “I’ll take a look. Of course, if I meet something satisfactory, I think I’ll take a few of them.”
The old man nodded very gentlemanly and said: “Except for some top-class watches, I can basically see other clocks here. Whether you want antique clocks or modern clocks, as long as you need them, Just tell me I’ll do it.” Although still very polite, Yang Jing could clearly feel the flash of light in the old man’s eyes.
seems to be faintly laughing: “How many more pieces are you taking away? It’s up to you?”
Yang Jing shrugged and began to look at the clocks in this shop carefully.
Not to mention, the old man really didn’t tell lies. Although the area of his shop is not very large, the clocks here are really diverse.
Looking at it casually, Yang Jing saw several antique table clocks and several antique pocket watches and wrist watches.
Among them is a table clock. Yang Jin bet that it is definitely a gold commemorative clock produced by the Kenning family of Germany to celebrate the 45th birthday of William II.
I am afraid that in the eyes of most people in the world, William II, who brazenly provoked the First World War, is definitely not a good person, but in the eyes of the Germans, he was born with a The last emperor of Germany whose left arm shrank due to Erb’s palsy was undoubtedly very, very great.
Although William II did a lot of things that endangered world peace during his reign, he brazenly provoked the First World War, but the Germans of that era were still very enthusiastic about the emperor.
Even if Wilhelm II’s 45th birthday in 1914 was the time when the First World War was in full swing, it still could not stop many Germans from celebrating the birthday of the great Emperor.
And the Kenning family, who had just emerged in the watch industry at that time, presented a gold and diamond table clock to the Emperor on the birthday of William II.
Foreigners are different from Huaxia people. On Huaxia people’s birthday, you give them clocks and they will call you out. What do you mean by sending clocks and watches? Send the bell (end)?
It may seem to foreigners that whether it is a watch or a table clock, even a grandfather clock is a very good birthday gift.
Not to mention the whole body of the clock that the Kenning family gave to William II at that time was made of gold and diamonds. It is said that the clock alone was worth 18,000 gold marks.
This clock was very popular with William II, and the Kenning family, which was in its infancy at the time, immediately used this clock as a model to create 45 more William II commemorative clocks.
Although these commemorative clocks are not as luxurious as the real birthday gift clocks, their dials and hands are also made of gold. In that era, the price of such a commemorative clock was as high as 1200 gold marks.
The German gold mark before World War I was still quite valuable, because the currency of that era was linked to gold. In that era, the world’s most circulating currency was not the US dollar, but the British pound. A pound of that era contained about 7.3 grams of pure gold, while the gold content of the German gold mark was half that of the British pound. In other words, in that era, one pound sterling equals two German gold marks equals five U.S. dollars.
In other words, one gold mark of that era was equal to 2.5 US dollars, and 1200 gold marks was equivalent to 3000 US dollars.
In that era, what does 3,000 dollars mean? In that era, 300 dollars could buy a large enough piece of land in Texas and retire to enjoy life. For 3,000 dollars, you could be called a rich man in the local area!
This is indeed the case. If you calculate the current U.S. dollar and the 1900 U.S. dollar according to the changes in the price of gold, you will find that the 3,000 U.S. dollars in 1900 is approximately equal to the current 350,000 U.S. dollars!
After all, the national GDP of the United States in 1900 was only 20.5 billion U.S. dollars. One can imagine how high the value of this 1,200 gold mark is.
Yang Jing likes clocks and watches, which may be inherited from his parents.
Yang Jing’s mother and father both love watches, and even with Yang Jing since childhood, they also liked this kind of art specially used for timekeeping. Therefore, Yang Jing is still very familiar with the clock.
Of course he knew the value of this 45th anniversary clock of William II. Even if this clock is not counted as history, its value alone is almost 350,000 US dollars. If you count the history of more than a hundred years www.readwn.com the value of this clock is at least even higher. Ten times or more.
Seeing Yang Jing looking at the clock, the old man leaned over and said proudly: “Yang, you have a very good vision. This clock can be said to be the treasure of the shop in this shop. Since the commemorative table clock 103 years ago, there are currently only six in the world, and the only one that can move around is my one and the one treasured by another British nobleman.”
Seeing the envy in Yang Jing’s eyes, the old man said proudly, “Yes, the Kenning family’s 45th birthday commemorative clock for William II is the only one in Paris and even France. There is a commemorative clock in existence. Of course, its price is very expensive.”
Yang Jing asked: “Mr. Armand, can you tell me the price of this clock? I hope I can learn more about clocks from you.”
“Of course, boy, this clock was bought by my father from a German over forty years ago. If this clock is sold now, the starting price will never be less than 4 million euros. Only. However, I have never wanted to make this clock, so I don’t know how valuable this clock is.”
Hearing this price, Yang Jing stuck out his tongue and said with a smile: “Mr. Armand, thank you very much for allowing me to learn so much knowledge. But this clock is really a beautiful baby! It can Attract the attention of anyone who comes to your shop.”
The old man squinted his eyes with a smile, but the arrogance in his expression was undoubtedly revealed.
PS: The new week begins again, Lao Mo kneels for recommendation tickets, clicks and favorites! I would also like to ask all the book friends to support Lao Mo. Lao Mo is very grateful!