Chinese vase sells for world record-breaking £53.1 million at auction By Murray Wardrop
| Dec 8 2010
A Chinese vase discovered during a house
clearance sold for a world record-breaking £53.1 million
November 11, 2010.
The 18th century Qianlong porcelain vase
had been estimated to fetch between £800,000 and £1.2
million by Bainbridges, the provincial auction house handling
the sale.
However
both the auctioneers and the owners were stunned when it
went for the highest price of any Chinese artwork sold at
auction.
The elaborately decorated piece was put
up for sale by a brother and sister who found it while clearing
out their parents’ home in Pinner, north-west London
after they recently died.
The hammer fell after 30-minutes of furious
bidding between six men in the room and three telephone
bidders. It was eventually sold to a Chinese man, said to
be a Beijing-based agent, who sat on a gilded sofa at the
front of the room but refused to comment after the sale.
The owners, who had no idea quite how much
the vase was worth, were so shocked that they had to leave
the room for a breath of fresh air.
Standing 16 inches tall and decorated with
fish, the vase is thought to date from the time of Qianlong,
the fourth emperor in the Qing dynasty, around 1740.
Experts said it probably once belonged to
Chinese royalty but was most likely taken out of the country
at the end of the Second Opium War in 1860 when the palaces
were ransacked.
It is understood to have been in the vendors’
family since the 1930s.
The astronomical price was reached due to
the rising demand for Imperial associated trophies among
Chinese collectors.
Commenting on the sale, Ivan Macquisten,
editor of Antiques Trade Gazette, said: “Chinese art
is the biggest bidding market in the art world right now.
“The most extraordinary thing about
it is that it wasn’t sold by the likes of Sotheby’s
or Christie's, this was sold at a little auctioneers operating
out of a warehouse in Ruislip.
“He (the auctioneer) will certainly
be able to retire on the proceeds he’s made on his
fees from this – this is lottery money in fees."
The hammer fell at £43 million but
the total price, including commission and VAT on the commission,
was £53,105,000.
Peter Bainbridge, director of the auction
house, said: “I’m thrilled that a provincial
auction room can show what it can do.
“I’m also delighted to have
handled such an astonishing work of art. I didn’t
quite realise how exciting it was.”
The auction house's previous highest sale
was £100,000 for a Ming enamel piece a couple of years
ago.
The vase has a yellow painted trumpet neck
and a double-walled construction, meaning an inner vase
can be seen through the perforations of the main body.
Helen Porter, of Bainbridges, said: "In
the 18th century it would have resided no doubt in the Chinese
Royal Palace and was most certainly fired in the Imperial
kilns.
"It is a piece of exquisite beauty
and a supreme example of the skill of the ceramicist and
decorator.
“They (the vendors) had no idea what
they had. They were hopeful but they didn't dare believe
until the hammer went down.
"When it did, the sister had to go
out of the room and have a breath of fresh air."
The vase beat the record for any Chinese
work of art sold at auction, 436.8 million yuan (£40.9
million) paid for a 15-meter-long Song Dynasty scroll at
Beijing Poly International Auction Co. in June this year.