Chinese Vase Sets New World Record

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Nov 12th 2010 at 6:01AM

In a week that has seen quite a few huge sales in contemporary art, an 18th century Chinese porcelain vase managed to still stun the world. The vase, which was discovered when a house was cleared out was sold for £43 million ($69.3 million) at Bainbridges Auctions (£53.1m after commission which pushes the total to over $85 million). The vase was only estimated to sell for £1.2 million but fierce bidding among Chinese would-be buyers drove up the price. The vase sold to a Chinese bidder who turned up to bid on behalf of an undisclosed buyer.

Bainbridges, the auction house in the London suburb of Ruislip, knew they had something special on their hands but no one expected the piece to sell for quite this much money. It is believed to be the most expensive piece of Chinese art ever sold. In a blog post before the auction, Bainbridges said that the vase was "what must be one of the most important Chinese vases to be offered for sale this century." They speculated that the delicate vase with the fish motif would have spent time in the Chinese Royal Palace and was likely fired in the Imperial kilns. One of the things that makes this vase so amazing is that it has a reticulated double walled construction. There is an inner vase that can be viewed through the perforations of the main body. It is of the Qianlong period, circa 1740s and decorated with four cartouches each showcasing different styles of fish at play on stylized water backgrounds. It has a delicately painted yellow trumpet neck and vase set off from the central decoration by orange bands.

Tags: chinese, chinese vase, most expensive, most expensive chinese art, most expensive vase, qianlong

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

hey dude7 Nov 12th 2010 2:49PM

That is strange, i just saw a bunch of this @ Walt-mart.

I know they are real , they had a Royal Stamp from the Chinese Imperial House that read:

"Made in China" in a little gold stamp.

Asian Antiquities Feb 1st 2011 12:28AM

I never cease to be amazed by when I hear a story like this, someone finding some sort of great and wonderful treasure. Even though I know that this type of occurrence really should not surprise anyone at all, In fact, this type of thing happens every day. The reason that we don't hear about this type of occurrence happening much more often is that the average person seems to be predisposed to believing in the impossibility of this type of thing happening to them. I guess it's a case of "he who has eye, let them see." Maybe we all just need to slow down and take the time to consider the possibilities in the world around us. Maybe then we all might find the hidden treasures the world has to offer.

Sincerely, Robert Yates
President: Asian Antiquities
http://asian-antiquites.com