Chinese vase with €150 estimate sells for €110,000.00

Judgement Day

The Irish Times - Wednesday, March 3, 2010
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0303/1224265504158.html
Chinese vase smashes €150 guide price and sells for €110,000 in Laois

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• Four-minute frenzy as deep-pocketed bidders push Chinese vase to €110,000 | 03/03/2010

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MICHAEL PARSONS in Durrow, Co Laois
A CHINESE vase with an asking price of just €150 sold at a Co Laois auction yesterday for €110,000.
The 12-inch-high blue-and-white porcelain vase attracted an opening bid of €50 – before a bidding war erupted between two international antique collectors.
Both had recognised it online as an authentic Imperial vase, and flew in for the one-day sale of furniture and collectibles at Sheppards Irish Auction House in Durrow.
Afterwards, the purchaser, London antique dealer Richard Peters (48), said: “I got a bargain.”
Underbidder Rong Chen (48), who had travelled from Beijing especially for the auction, said she was “very sad and disappointed”.
Her husband, an accountant and antique collector, had spotted the vase on the internet and believed “This is the one – we think it was in the Imperial household.”
The item was part of a collection of Chinese porcelain inherited by an unnamed Co Carlow family and consigned for sale. They were last night “chuffed and delighted” by the sale, the auctioneers said.
Mr Peters, who runs an antiques business in Kensington, said the vase was “made for the personal collection of the Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century”. He explained that the vase, in a shape known in Chinese as hu-yu-chun-ping, was decorated simply with “images of banana and bamboo trees”.
It had “probably been looted from the Imperial Palace in Peking by French or British or American soldiers sometime during the 19th century”, he added, describing the field of Chinese ceramics as “difficult because the market is filled with fakes and forgeries”.
When auctioneer Michael Sheppard called for an opening bid for the vase shortly after noon, he received an offer of just €50. But, within seconds, intense and frenzied bidding was under way and bids jumped, first in multiples of hundreds, and then thousands of euro. Mr Peters, who was seated, bid by nodding discreetly, while Ms Chen stood as she took instructions on a mobile phone from her husband. Later, she told The Irish Times that he had told her “to drop out at €100,000”.
When Mr Sheppard brought down the gavel at €110,000, there were gasps and then applause in the tightly packed saleroom.
Mr Sheppard said “that was the highest figure ever achieved for any item” in the 60-year history of the family-run firm of auctioneers and valuers. He said “something like this happens once in a lifetime”.
Mr Peters bought a second lot – a pair of Chinese polychrome vases – for €41,000. Like the Imperial vase, the items had carried a guide price of €100-€150.
Mr Peters returned to London last night with the items, which he is likely to sell to a Chinese client.
As the salesroom emptied, attendees spoke of their astonishment. David Stapleton, from the nearby town of Ballyragget, said “It was one of those moments. You had to be there – like the GPO in 1916.”

Great to see and something we all dream of - hitting the Mother lode - the only downside will be that Joe Public's belief that old means valuable will be massively reinforced.

arnhem44

Great story,makes one wonder what else may be out there.

robinph

David Stapleton wrote:

You had to be there – like the GPO in 1916.

LOL

citizen_p

buyer said it was a bargain, could be worth half a million

if their wasnt two international bidders he may have got it for 100-150 euro....ffs just goes to show what can be found, id actully be more disapointed if it went to a person who didnt know about it, if it breaks "sure i got that for 50 quid, fek it in the bin"

Blade

Mousey- wrote: »

buyer said it was a bargain, could be worth half a million

if their wasnt two international bidders he may have got it for 100-150 euro....ffs just goes to show what can be found, id actully be more disapointed if it went to a person who didnt know about it, if it breaks "sure i got that for 50 quid, fek it in the bin"

Just goes to show that the auctioneers hadn't a clue about the item they were responsible for advertising and selling. If it was advertised properly all over the world there would have been lots of people there bidding and it would have achieved a more realistic price.

Judgement Day

Since the sale, one of the partners in the auctioneering firm has been quoted as saying that the buyer may get as much as €3 million for it in China. Maybe the original vendor should keep some of their cash back for a good solicitor? I'll say no more.