THE VASE USED AS A GOALPOST

For years, the vase had stood on a stand in Terry Nurrish’s dining room in Grimbsy, doubling as an indoor goal post when his children played football.

It was given to him by his mother, who bought it at a house clearance sale in 1946 in a £100 ‘job lot’ of antiques. When the Antiques roadshow was filmed locally in 1991, he took it along.

There, expert Eric Knowles declared it a French ‘Japonisme’ ( Japaneseinfluenced) ornament made by renowned jewellers and silversmiths Christofle for the Paris Exhibition in 1874 and valued it at £10,000.

Terry kept it for 23 years, finally selling it at Christie’s in 2014 — for £668,000.