Dad’s bargain £1 vase is £484,000 Chinese treasure
TO THE charity shop browser, the pretty little yellow vase adorned with enamel rose motifs and Chinese writing looked a bargain at £1, so he snapped it up.
On Friday he found out just how much of a bargain as he watched in astonishment when it sold for an incredible £484,000 at auction after a fierce bidding war.
The excitement was sparked by the fact the rare 8in vase had been identified as belonging to an 18th Century Chinese Emperor, though how it ended up in a Hertfordshire charity shop is a mystery.
Unsurprisingly, the unnamed seller was said to be ‘ecstatic’ and has said he will spend the money on securing his three-year-old daughter’s future.
He had begun to suspect the vase might be worth just a little bit more than he paid for it after he listed in on eBay and was inundated with offers.
He removed it from the online auction site and took it to Sworders Fine
Art Auctioneers in Essex, where he was stunned to discover the vase had been specially crafted for the Qianlong Emperor, who reigned from 1735 to 1796.
It i s marked with a symbol to denote its use for one of the royal palaces rather than for export and is inscribed with the words ‘Qianlong chen han’ or ‘the Qianlong Emperor’s own mark’ along with a poem that ‘praises incense’.
Yexue Li, head of the Asian art department at Sworders, said: ‘The gentleman vendor was in the charity shop and picked out the vase because he liked the look of it. He was unaware of its significance so he put it on eBay with a very low starting price to begin with and there was a lot of interest.
‘ He decided to take the vase off eBay and bought it in to us to take a look… he was shocked and very excited when we explained its importance.’
The pear-shaped vase, which Ms Li described as ‘ culturally important’ and a ‘beautiful work of art’, has a flat back and is designed to be attached to a wall. Its yellow colour is significant as this was specially reserved for the Emperor.
The vase had a pre-auction estimate of £80,000 but went under the hammer for £380,000. Extra fees took the overall figure handed over by the Chinese buyer to £484,800.