Imperial price for Chinese vase at Durrow auction
A CHINESE vase sold at Sheppards Irish Auction House last week, for over €100,000 to a London antique dealer.
The vase, lot 259, had a guide price of just €150, but a bidding war seen the price of the item soar to €110,00 at the Durrow auction house.
The blue-and-white porcelain, pear shaped vase (Wuhuchunping) attracted an opening bid of €50, before a bidding war erupted between two international antique collectors.
David Sheppard, director with Sheppards Auction House, said the item had attracted more interest by email than other items. "We sent out hundreds of photographs of this items, and there was a lot of interest in it," Mr Shepphard told the Leinster Express.
The purchaser, Richard Peters, who travelled from London for the auction, is a long-standing client of Sheppards, while his opponent, Rong Chen travelled from Beijing especially for the auction.
Both parties had recognised the vase online as an authentic Imperial Vase.
Mr Sheppard said the auction room was shocked at the bidding war that had just taken place before them. "I couldn't explain the atmosphere, it was almost like an earthquake had hit. People were shocked, it was surreal," he said. "There was silence at first and then people started clapping."
It is believed that the chinese vase sold for the highest figure ever achieved for any item in the 60-year history of the Durrow business. The previous lot, a pair of Chinese polychrome vases with a guide price of €100-€150, sold for €41,000.
The vase and the other Chinese porcelain items in the auction formed part of a collection by "two Carlow sisters" who had lived in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s.
A second lot of Chinese items, which Sheppard's hope will attract as much attention, will go under the hammer in September.
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