Woof, that’s a lot of money
Ancient Chinese bowl that looks like it’s for a dog just sold for $400K
OAKLAND PARK – The ancient Chinese bowl looks like something you’d find at a pet store.
On Thursday, the Abington Auction Gallery in Oakland Park sold the simple gray bowl to the highest bid of $330,000, ending a competitive — and anonymous — bidding war between a Pembroke Pines bidder and an online bidder from California.
The California bidder won the 1,000-year-old artifact. The total cost came out to more than $400,000 after the 25% online bid fee.
“It was really something,” said Christopher Mayor, who owns and runs the auction. “It was definitely something that wasn’t expected. We deal with a lot of Chinese and Asian antiquities, but we’ve never had something do this well. Did I think it might hit $20,000? Yes. $50,000? Maybe. Did I ever think it would hit $400,000? No — that exceeded our wildest
expectations. ”
The Chinese market for antiquities has taken off in the past decade, Mayor said. That’s led to large numbers of reproductions and copies, making originals hard to come by.
Mayor, 32, and his dad, 67-year-old Craig Mayor, run the auction and the gallery together. The elder Mayor said they try to be conservative with their estimates and started the bidding between $4,000 and $6,000.
Internet bids took it up to the $50,000 range almost immediately, and then a bidder on the phone jumped it up to $100,000 right off the bat, Chris Mayor said.
“There were some big, large jumps,” he said. “They do it to show how strong they are, that they want it at any cost and to scare others off from bidding.”
At one point, the Pembroke Pines bidder jumped the bid from $200,000 up to $300,000, “figuring he would blow everybody out of the water,” Craig Mayor said.
But the bidder, who Craig Mayor said may have been representing a bidder from China, didn’t go above the $330,000 online bid.
Auctions are anonymous, and bidders or their representatives can bid through one of three platforms: in person, online or over the phone.
The auction was one of the more lively ones, and set a record for the gallery. Those at the auction applauded, Craig Mayor said.
But from looking at the 10-inch wide bowl, you would never guess it would go for that much money.
“If you look at this and saw it in person, you’d go, ‘Eh, it’s a bowl.’ It looks like a dog bowl, ” Craig Mayor said. “There’s nothing flashy about it. It’s a very unassuming piece of pottery that looks like something you’d find at Petsmart.”
The Chinese celadon glazed bowl was more likely used to wash paint brushes possibly dating back to the Sung (Song) Dynasty from 960-1279 AD.
The bowl has previously been sold in world-class galleries in New York and Amsterdam and is in impeccable condition, the Mayors said. Once people caught wind of the bowl’s importance, they began visiting the gallery to pose in front of the display case.
“It doesn’t catch the eye at all, but it really is remarkable it doesn’t have a chip or flaw,” Chris Mayor said. “It’s survived almost 1,000 years through handling and moving, and it’s made its way across the ocean more than once before.”
The Mayors don’t know the buyer from California, so they aren’t sure where the bowl will end up. But there’s a good chance it could travel over oceans again back to its homeland in China.
“After years and years of shipping products out, the Chinese want to bring their antiquities back to their homeland,” Chris Mayor said. “Anything that’s good like this, they want to bring it home for themselves or to display in their museums.”