Home / Arts and Entertainment / Doorstop Vase Smashes Records: £650K Auction Win
Doorstop Vase Smashes Records: £650K Auction Win
15 Nov
Summary
- A Chinese vase, used as a doorstop for 36 years, sold for £650,000.
- The vase was inherited and nearly sold at a car boot sale before valuation.
- Experts identified the vase as likely from the Qianlong Emperor's period.
A Chinese porcelain vase, long used as a doorstop in a Birmingham family's home, achieved a remarkable £650,000 at auction on July 1, 2016. The family had inherited the vase in the 1980s from a great-aunt who was an antiques dealer, but its historical significance remained unknown for decades.
Considered for sale at a local car boot sale, the vase was saved when an antiques specialist recognized its potential. The object is a blue-and-white Chinese porcelain vase, approximately 66 centimeters tall, featuring distinctive hexagonal outlines and decorations in cobalt blue.
Auction specialists identified the vase as likely originating from the Qianlong period (1736-1795) of the Qing dynasty, possibly produced for the Emperor's Summer Palace. Its design shows influences of European Baroque and earlier Ming porcelain.
Found during a routine home valuation by Hansons Auctioneers, the vase was assessed with an estimate of £300,000 to £500,000. Its subsequent sale exceeded expectations, attracting interest from collectors in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and setting a record hammer price for the auction house at the time.
