Shropshire Star

Buyers go potty for £155,000 lot at Shrewsbury auction

A rare pot thought to be worth £40,000 reached almost four times its estimate when it went under the hammer in Shropshire.

Published

The four-inch-high Chinese brush pot had been left to a woman from south Shropshire by her mother when she died.

She had the heavily carved pot in her possession all her life but was totally unaware of its value until she took it along to a valuation day organised by Halls Fine Arts of Shrewsbury.

Experts told the amazed woman the pot was actually a rare 18th century Chinese cinnabar lacquer brush pot and could be worth up to £40,000.

But when it went up for auction on Wednesday it attracted vigorous bidding from around the world and finally sold for £155,000.

And the unnamed woman was delighted with the result.

The brush pot, or bitong, depicts Wang Xizhi, known as the Sage of Calligraphy, on a veranda watching his geese in a pond. Wang Xizhi lived during the Jin Dynasty and was the most esteemed Chinese calligrapher during and after the Tang Dynasty.

The Emperor Taizong was said to have admired Wang Xizhi's works so much that the original of his most famous work, "Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion", was buried with him in his mausoleum.

Wang Xizhi was very interested in nature and was fascinated by geese, the flowing quality of their necks said to have inspired his calligraphy and most of his writing,

Alexander Clement, from Halls, who conducted the sale as part of the Asian art auction, said: "It's one of those moments you dream about as an auctioneer and that you really hope is going to happen on the rostrum.

"You put a figure that you reasonably expect it to make."

Mr Clement added: "The market decides what it wants to pay and in this case it was well above the estimate, I am pleased to say."

"The quality of the carving was exceptional. It's the sort of thing you would expect to see in the Imperial Palace and it's as good as you can get, of its time.

"It generated an awful lot of interest from serious buyers in London and I was confident it would reach its reserve but you don't know what the reaction is going to be at the auction," he explained, "The price achieved was staggering. In the back of my mind I had a feeling it could get to that level but didn't allow myself to get carried away."

"It shows that these rare Chinese pieces are out there tucked away in cupboards, on shelves and propping open doors in Shropshire and surrounding counties. The owners invariably have no idea what they are and that's when it gets really exciting.

"It's the dream of every fine art auctioneer and vendor to discover an object that is truly magnificent and then to achieve a fantastic result for it. It's what keeps us getting out of bed in the morning to go to work. The next exciting Asian art object is out there waiting to be discovered.

According to Mr Clement thepot had been purchased by the vendor's mother in the 1950s while she was studying at Oxford University and at a time in her life when she had the money to purchase luxury decorative items.

Jeremy Lamond, Halls' fine art director, praised Mr Clement for his detailed research work and marketing of the brush pot in London.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.