Pots of money! Chinese pots bought from a charity shop for just £20 are sold at auction for £60,000
- The eagle-eyed salesman saw pieces of doucai porcelain in the charity shop in London
- Went for 3,000 times what the seller paid for it after a bidding war
- They have agreed to donate a ‘significant’ portion of the proceeds to charity
A pair of Chinese pots bought for £20 at a thrift shop have sold for as much as £60,000.
The eagle-eyed salesman, a young professional who collects ceramics, saw the Doucai porcelain pieces in a London charity shop.
He bought them after he liked them, but then didn’t realize what they were worth.
It wasn’t until he showed the pots to his local auctioneers that he discovered that the pots had been made in the 18th century in the imperial kilns of the Qing dynasty.
They raised a hammer price of £46,000 after sparking a bidding war. With the auctioneer’s fees added to the final amount paid by the unknown buyer, it comes to £59,800.
The eagle-eyed salesman, a young professional who collects ceramics, saw the pieces of doucai porcelain in a charity shop in London
It wasn’t until he showed the pots to his local auctioneers that he discovered that the pots had been made in the 18th century in the imperial kilns of the Qing dynasty.
They went for 3,000 times what the seller paid for it.
The seller, who wishes to remain anonymous, has agreed to donate a “significant” portion of the proceeds from the sale to the unnamed charity.
Bill Forrest, auctioneer at Roseberys, said: ‘Whenever I read a similar story, my first reaction is sadness at missing out on the good cause.
‘But in this case the seller, a young professional from London, was unaware of the value of the pots.
“He’s someone who loves ceramics and showed me pictures of glass cabinets in his house full of them.
‘He was drawn to the pots as decorative pieces.
“When I told him what they’re worth, he said he’d donate a significant portion of the proceeds from the sale to charity, which is really nice to hear.”
The 12 cm high lotus and chrysanthemum pots are finely painted in underglaze blue and enamelled in red, yellow and green.
The 4.5 inch high lotus and chrysanthemum pots are finely painted in underglaze blue and enameled in red, yellow and green
The seller, who wishes to remain anonymous, has agreed to donate a “significant” portion of the proceeds from the sale to the unnamed charity.
They have roundels of flower heads interspersed with leafy lotus whorls, and crucially display the six-character Qianlong seal mark.
The sale was conducted by auctioneers Roseberys, of West Norwood, South London.
Forrest continued, “Charity store employees do a great job, but they’re not specialists and they get such a huge amount of items that they can’t thoroughly examine them all.
“I suppose this shows the value of specialists.
“These jars have the six-character seal mark, but there are so many counterfeits that you need to pay more attention.
“But if you’ve studied Imperial porcelain, it exudes an indescribable power, and this example from the 18th century was when Chinese porcelain was at its peak.”
“The craftsmanship is unmistakable and that’s why I believed they are from the period that the brand suggests.”