Porcelain & Pottery

In another story of an amazing piece of undervaluing a Chinese vase thought to have been worth under a £100 has sold for close to £100,000 at an auction at Sheppards Irish Auction House in Durrow. County Laois, Ireland.

The 12-inch porcelain vase was mistaken for a replica Imperial vase by the auctioneers. The auction began with an opening bid of $70, before two  dealers then started bidding in multipules of a thousand. It was all over in a few minutes and a London dealer, Richard Peters, made the winning bid. Mr. Peters said that the market is "filled with fakes and forgeries" but this vase was "made for the personal collection of the Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century" and had “probably been looted from the Imperial Palace in Peking by French or British or American soldiers sometime during the 19th century".

Everday people are finding amazing things proving the point that those who say there are nothing left to discover could not be more wrong.

Mark Hill has just posted a fabulous story about a lady who bought a Poole plate in a Winchester charity shop for just a pound and then found out, thanks to Miller's Collectables Price Guide, that it was worth far more. In fact the plate was sold at auction for £1,760. You can read the rest of the story HERE.

Have you got any Poole pottery that may have gone up in value since the closure of the factory in 2006? You can check out the latest prices both on our web site and in the new edition of Collectables.

If you have a story about how Miller's has helped you make money, please email info@millersguides.com and win a free book if we publish it online!

At the end of last month I posted about a Chinese vase that was found in a couple's house where it was being used as an umbrella stand. The 18.5 inch blue and white piece is an imperial vase and almost certainly made for the Emperor Qianlong in about 1740. There is some slight damage, and even a splash of emulsion paint, without the damage it was estimated it could have fetched £1million, as it was a more modest half a million was the estimate.  Well yesterday it made £750,000 which is a fantastic sale. It was sold by Dukes in Dorchester to an anonymous telephone bidder.

I'm sure many of you in the UK will have heard about the £100,000 plate on the Antiques Roadshow as it's been widely reported in the press. For those in America that may be interested in what is a lovely story you can read about it HERE

I had a very busy day today that seemed to feel much busier after my journey into Canary Wharf on the tube turned into a bit of a nightmare. First the tube broke down and then because the Docklands Light Railway is out of action I had to change at London Bridge because the escalator at Bank Station was out of order. It was not just me changing at London Bridge, so was everyone else!

As a result of my travel troubles I got a chance to read the newspaper and spotted a lovely story about a couple who had a vase worth £500,000 that they had been using as an umbrella stand. According to Guy Schwinge, of Dukes auctioneers in Dorchester the couple had been given the vase as a present 50 years ago. The 18th-century vase, which may even have been owned by Florence Nightingale, was found in the spare room of their home. The 18.5 inch blue and white piece is an imperial vase and almost certainly made for the Emperor Qianlong in about 1740. There is some slight damage, and even a splash f emulsion paint, without the damage it may have fetched £1million.

It will be auctioned at Duke's on February 11