A LITTLE Chinese vase that was discovered in Co Carlow earlier this year, and valued at “around €100”, was yesterday sold at auction by Bonhams in London for £240,000.
But its sale was overshadowed by the sensational price of £53.1 million paid for a vase at an auction in Ruislip, west London. Auctioneer Bainbridge’s said the 16-inch-high vase, made during the reign of 18th century Emperor Qianlong, was found during a house clearance in the suburb of Pinner. It estimated the vase’s value at between £800,000 and £1.2 million.
But Chinese buyers eager to repatriate their imperial heritage sparked a bidding war. “The Chinese market is on fire,” said auctioneer Philip Sheppard last night.
On any other day, the price achieved for “the Carlow vase” would have been extraordinary. The blue-and-white 11¼-inch-high porcelain piece, also of the Qianlong period, first came to public attention in March when it sold for 1,000 times its estimated value at Sheppard’s Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois. Estimated at just €100-€150, it was bought by a London dealer for €110,000 who described the price as “a bargain”.
Yesterday it was purchased by a Chinese buyer. The catalogue mentioned that the vase had previously been part of “an Irish private collection, Co Carlow” and had been “acquired in Philadelphia in the 1940s-1950s, by repute”.
It is understood that the Carlow family inherited the porcelain from two sisters who had emigrated to the US and built up a collection of oriental ceramics for ornamental purposes.
Earlier this year, part of the collection was consigned for sale to Sheppard’s.
Earlier in the day, at the “packed” saleroom of Bonhams in New Bond Street, a tiny white jade seal – the size of a matchbox – made for the personal use of Emperor Qianlong had sold for £2.7 million.
A Bonhams spokesman described it as “a stunning piece of China’s imperial history”
It was sold to a Chinese buyer from Beijing.
