a husband and wife, in their 70s, had put the vase in a plastic shopping bag and taken it to their local auction house in Derby to be valued, it was30 cm high which they had inherited from a great uncle about 45 years ago, auctioneer Charles Hanson (above) examined the piece when the couple, from south Derbyshire, brought it in to be priced during a Saturday morning valuation day, ‘the couple first pulled out of the bag an old teapot which I told them they would be lucky to get £10 for,' he explained, ‘they then pulled out the vase which they hoped might fetch £25, but I immediately knew it was quite valuable and after making some quick inquiries told the couple that at auction the vase could easily fetch £10,000,'
it was in fact dated to the reign of the Quing Dynasty and carried a mark for the daoguang period (1821-1850), Charles recalls, ‘bidding quickly rose past £10,000 and by £145,000 it was a two-way battle between a UK buyer and a Hong Kong gentleman, with bidding at £190,000 and the room holding its breath, a phone line from the UK secured the vase at a hammer price of £192,000,’ as I mentioned before, I just love stories like this.
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