In the English county of Derbyshire, an old broken vase went under the hammer at a price that was 20 times higher than experts’ expectations. The Daily Mail reports.
The owners of the vase, a couple from Leicestershire, claim that it crashed during a hunting gathering about 60 years ago. They tried to glue the shards together, but could not hide the numerous cracks and traces of glue.
The vase was made in China about three centuries ago, during the reign of the Chinese emperor Qianlong from the Qing dynasty, who ruled from 1735 to 1796. The auction appraiser believed that because of the cracks, it was unlikely that they would give more than 10 thousand pounds sterling (980 thousand rubles) for it. If there were no damages, 600-700 thousand pounds sterling (68.5 million rubles) could be rescued for the vase.
The expert was wrong. Contrary to his pessimistic forecast, during the auction the lot price reached 200 thousand pounds sterling (19.6 million rubles). The buyer was a resident of China who participated in the auction via the Internet.
In 2018 it was reported that an old porcelain teapot with a lost lid and a crack in the handle, bought by a Briton for £ 15, turned out to be a 17th century piece from America’s first porcelain factory. Two years later, the find was auctioned for £ 575,000.