Sold for £180k.. chipped vases hidden by owners for 30 years
‘Embarrassed’ couple kept hated pair in cardboard box
TWO badly damaged vases kept in a box for 30 years because the owners were too embarrassed to show them off have sold for more than £180,000.
One was cracked and crudely repaired with glue. The other had hairline fractures.
The owners, who inherited them three decades ago, dug the pair out in a clearance and took them along to an auction house’s valuation day.
They were identified as 200-year-old Chinese baluster vases in famille rose from the Emperor Daoguang period.
Because of the shoddy repairs that left one broken bit misaligned with the rim, experts valued the pair at just £1,000.
But inquiries poured in from interested parties around the world as the sale approached at Lawrences Auctioneers in Crewkerne, Somerset.
A buyer from the Far East eventually acquired the 11in-tall vases for £144,000 – with his bill topping £180,000 after fees were added. The lucrative sale comes amid a boom in the market for eastern art as newly rich Chinese collectors bid to buy back their lost heritage. The vases were sold by an anonymous couple from Taunton, having been a family heirloom since the early 20th century. Auctioneer Neil Grenyer said: “The couple never put the vases on display because of the state they were in. One was shot and the other had hairline cracks. “The worse of the two had a badly broken rim and neck – previously repaired using glue. “All of its damage was post-war and was likely to have been caused by a cleaner who accidentally knocked it over. “The owners told me they had always kept the pair in a cardboard box because they didn’t like to look at them. “The man could not attend the sale as he was at work but I spoke to him over the phone and he was delighted. This is a very pleasant windfall for them and they celebrated with a glass of wine or two.”