Purchased for $25 at a Thrift Store, Chinese language Jars Value $57,500

It pays to know a little bit one thing about Chinese language ceramics. A pair of jars purchased for $25 by a curious buyer in a London thrift store turned out to be 18th century treasures from the Qing Dynasty that offered Tuesday for about $57,500 at Roseberys Fine Art Auctioneers in London.

The nameless thrift-shop purchaser didn’t know what he had within the two imperial Chinese language doucai “lotus and chrysanthemum” jars, solely that he thought the 4-1/2-inch-tall had been distinctive sufficient to have an knowledgeable have a look at them.

A pair of 18th-century Chinese language jars bought at a London thrift store for $25 offered for $57,500 at public sale.

“It highlights the significance of specialist information on the subject of promoting Chinese language porcelain,” stated Invoice Forrest, affiliate director and head of Chinese language, Japanese and South East Asian Artwork at Roseberys.

An in depth closeup of the lotus and chrysanthemum jars.

Courtesy Roseberys

Doucai is a porcelain portray approach used within the earlier Ming dynasty the place designs are outlined in blue earlier than being glazed. The jars function rounds of blooming pink and yellow chrysanthemums heads interspersed with tendrils of lotus flowers. They bear the Qianlong seal marks on the bottom in underglaze blue. Chrysanthemums and orchids had been two of the 4 “gents flowers” generally painted on porcelain, with chrysanthemums a preferred motif given their affiliation with lengthy life and wealth. The jars would have been used to retailer tea leaves.

The Qianlong seal marks on the bottom of the jars in underglaze blue.

Courtesy Roseberys

“These jars are extraordinarily well-potted and painted with nice talent and finesse,” Forrest stated. “In fact, charity retailers may be forgiven for overlooking such specialised objects as these because of the quantity and number of donations they obtain.”

It’s not the primary time lotus and chrysanthemum jars with the identical design have offered at public sale. In 2021, a pair offered at Sotheby’s London for $350,000 and in 2013 one other pair offered at Christie’s Hong Kong for in $782,000. The presence of small hairlines on the thrift store jars and the absence of lids explains the distinction between their worth at Roseberys and the costs beforehand achieved for the Qing dynasty jars.