The £1.5m vase kept in kitchen
IT was bought for a few hundred pounds in the 1980s by a surgeon who simply liked the look of it.
He did not believe the 18th century Chinese vase was of any importance – but yesterday it sold for almost £1.5million.
The 2ft blue-glazed silver and gilt ornament was eventually passed to the surgeon’s son, who kept it in the kitchen.
But the first suspicion that it might be worth more than the average ornament came when antiques expert Mark Newstead spotted it during a social visit to the house in the Midlands.
After it caught his eye, he told the owners to keep it out of harm’s way. Mr Newstead said: ‘I was surprised to see the vase in the kitchen and said “I think that’s something rather good”.’
He advised the family to move it to a safer spot – but it was only years after the 1990s visit that he was able to examine it properly.
Mr Newstead, a consultant at Newbury auctioneers Dreweatts, realised that the base bore the mark of 18th-century emperor Qianlong – and the vase had probably been displayed in the Qing dynasty’s palace.
Dreweatts put an estimate of up to £150,000 on it, but the vase sold for nearly ten times that amount after interest from China, Hong Kong and the US.