A fantastic find in England during Fall of 2010, echoes the improbability of a huge lottery win. Relatives cleared out the household of an old aunt's estate, and put the more valuable items, including an old Chinese vase, for sale at Bainbridge's, the small neighborhood auction house near London.The large sea-green and yellow Chinese porcelain vase was beautifully hand painted with fine gold detail, a double walled reticulated body with minute decorations, signed and in perfect condition. As was reported by the BBC and London's newspapers, the auctioneer put an estimate of a million to two million dollars on the 16 inch vase before the auction.
In 2000, China had a complete reversal regarding their cultural heritage after 50 years of strict communist rule, and decided to fill the art vacuum those years left in their country. With their new found commercial wealth they organised and paid for the repatriation of many of their antique masterpieces in Hong Kong, Europe and the West.
In 2007 a new government ban was established, a law with severe penalties against the sale or exports of rare and valuable culturally important objects older than 1911. For centuries before then, it was possible to make forays into China and bring home many treasures. This vase's signature showed it was crafted during the early Qing Dynasty, indicating the 18th century reign of Qianlong, dating from 1736 to 1795. As evidenced by international auction results, the Chinese connoisseur of antiques seeks objects from this specific period in their tumultuous history. It's considered the apogee of Chinese artistic development in all the decorative arts. Achieved due to the long term patronage of the sophisticated Emperor, Qianlong. He showed keen appreciation for art in all it's forms and amassed large collections. Commissioning and building several palace workshops and museums in the 'Forbidden City' complex of the Peking Palace grounds (now Beijing) to craft and display their masterpieces.
Of course, several old Chinese items are signed with his blue imperial mark, but were produced a hundred years later. According to Chinese culture, It's a practice that was not meant to deceive,but rather the Chinese way of honoring their traditional culture and ancestry. Bainbridge Auctioneers declared this vase was carefully evaluated by a few British Oriental porcelain experts and it was appraised as a genuine Qianlong porcelain piece.
As soon as this conclusion was announced, several Chinese government officials and wealthy industrialists were very eager to acquire this find. They sent their Chinese representatives to the London area auction house. The rest is history, a worldwide newspaper front page story. The lively bidding passed the million dollar mark quickly and continued going up as the Chinese bidders kept toping each other, to finally end this auction at a resounding $83,000,000 USD. The winner was a reserved Asian man of slight stature, who would not reveal who the new Chinese owner was. The vase's auction video is available on the Bainbridge website.
Since that day, Chinese antique values have jumped 300% in the Western markets. In fact, anything Oriental or from the Far-East that might be remotely valuable is sought after by speculators and investors. International auctions, from the most famous such as Sotheby's, are now replete with potentially lucrative Chinese objects.
Was this vase worth that much? Most people would say no. But as the saying goes in the antique world, "It's worth what someone is willing to pay." As a post-script to this story, according to Bainbridge's, the Chinese buyer made a small deposit on the vase after the sale and as of this date, the full amount has not been paid. Which brings to mind another term auctioneers use: 'buyer's remorse'.
Lisa Duchesnay - Early retirement brought a passion for the Far-East's export of decorative objects from 1850 to 1950, it's geography, history and ...
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