Battered vase destined for charity shop sells for £87,000

Joel Adams
Updated
The vase (left) and Anne Beck receiving the good news - BNPS
The vase (left) and Anne Beck receiving the good news - BNPS

A battered vase which was on its way to a charity shop has sold at auction for close to £90,000.

Grandmother Anne Beck always considered the chipped old china vase too damaged to display in her Eastbourne home.

She inherited the foot-tall oriental decoration from her grandfather, an antique restorer, but neither he nor she ever repaired it, and Mrs Beck, 83, kept it in her garage for 11 years.

Eventually she loaded it into her car to take to a charity shop, but on her way dropped in to an auctioneer’s valuation day to show off some glass fingerbowls, and mentioned the vase in passing.

An expert at the Eastbourne Auctions house, in East Sussex, convinced her to add it to last week’s sale. It was advertised online with an estimated sale price of between £90 and £120.

The vase would have been worth up to £500m if it were undamaged - Credit: BNPS
The vase would have been worth up to £500m if it were undamaged Credit: BNPS

But knowledgeable bidders spotted the true value of the item and drove the price up to £70,000. Including fees the German-based Chinese buyer paid £87,000 for the vase.

Had it been undamaged experts estimate it might have been worth between £250m and £500m.

The yellow floral vase has since been confirmed to date to the 18th century and was made for Chinese emperor Qinglong .

It depicts a scene from Chinese mythology in which a deity receives birthday gifts.

Mrs Beck said: "After I consigned it for auction I thought that £100 would be nice.

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"So I was absolutely amazed when I found out what it sold for. I couldn't quite believe it.

"I had a sit down and a cup of coffee afterwards but am still in a bit of a daze now."

Mrs Beck, a widow, said she intends to spend some of the money on her two children and four grandchildren.

Jeanette May of Eastbourne Auctions said: "The vendor came in with these glass finger bowls and said she had a broken vase in the back of her car that she was taking to a charity shop.

"Our assistant went out and saw it rattling around on the back seat and said 'oh that's nice.' He knew it was good but didn't realise just how good.

"We are chuffed to bits for our client.”