Chinese bowl bought at yard sale expected to make €420,000 at auction

CREDIT: Sotheby's

A CHINESE bowl bought for about €30 at a yard sale could fetch almost €420,000 at auction.

The small bowl with intricate floral designs was bought at a yard sale in Connecticut, USA, for $35 (about €30).

The buyer reportedly went to several yard sales and flea markets and bought the bowl for its $35 asking price without hesitation when it caught his eye.

Intrigued by the piece, the unknown buyer took it to Sotheby’s for appraisal and it was identified as an “exceptional piece” dating back to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) according to a statement from the auction house. The porcelain piece has the typical workmanship of the Yongle era (1403-1424), the third emperor of the Ming dynasty and would have been made for a sponsored by the court of the time. “The court sponsored production through large orders, hired specialists to do the designs, and selected supervisors to monitor the entire organization, leading to a new professionalism in conceiving the porcelain”, Sotheby’s explained.

On March 17 it will be put up for auction in New York, as part of the two weeks dedicated to Asia held by Sotheby’s every two years.

It would have been one of a large order, although only five more are known to exist, in the collections of renowned museums, two in the National Museum of Taipei, one in the British Museum and another in the Victoria & Albert, London,” says Sotheby’s in the statement.


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Jennifer Leighfield

Jennifer Leighfield, born in Salisbury, UK; resident in Malaga, Spain since 1989. Degree in Translation and Interpreting in Spanish, French and English from Malaga University (2005), specialising in Crime, Forensic Medicine and Genetics. Published translations include three books by Richard Handscombe. Worked with Euro Weekly News since November 2006. Well-travelled throughout Spain and the rest of the world, fan of Harry Potter and most things ‘geek’.

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