Antiques Roadshow guest bursts into tears at huge offer for ‘faulty’ Chinese vase
AN Antiques Roadshow guest burst into tears after receiving a huge offer for a ‘faulty’ Chinese vase.
Tonight’s edition of the BBC show saw a lady bring in a large Chinese porcelain vase with the traditional blue design on it.
The lady revealed the vase had belonged to her grandparents and then her parents before she took it into her home as she had always admired it so much.
Expert Alexandra Aguilar revealed it wasn’t a typical shape for an Imperial China vase as it was fashioned more on a Middle Eastern design and pilgrim’s flasks from the region of Iran.
She then pointed out some of the design features on the 18th Century vase including dragons, pearls of wisdom and bats.
However, she told the lady the vase had a number of faults, including a large crack in the bottom when she lifted it up, which she said would have occurred during the firing process.
She also explained how the bats were just outlines because: “They would have been shaded in at a later date.”
But despite all this, she said the quality of the painting was “exquisite” and the vase would still come with a hefty price tag at auction, with Alexandra telling the lady: “It’s still a very rare thing, at auction it would probably be worth £30,000 to £50,000.”
The lady’s eyes widened in shock and she was speechless for a moment, before her eyes then filled with tears as she said: “That’s still shockingly surprising.”
“I thought you were going to say 30 to 50 quid!”
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Alexandra said: “You have a piece of Imperial Chinese porcelain in your house. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you cry!”
The lady put her hand to her forehead and said emotionally: “God! £30-50,000?!”
She then revealed she had no idea it could be worth so much, and added: “If you’d told me it was worth £1,000 I’d have been thrilled.”
The expert also told her if it had been in a perfect condition it could have fetched £2-4 million with it being Imperial porcelain China.
Antiques Roadshow airs on Sundays at 7pm on BBC One.