Chinese vases break record for oriental ceramics

A PAIR of nine-inch high Chinese vases, bought for “a few hundred quid” in a Dublin antiques shop, sold yesterday for €170,000. They were acquired for a collector in China by a London agent bidding on the telephone, at an auction in Co Laois.

The winning bid established an Irish record price for oriental ceramics. Auctioneers Sheppard’s had estimated their value at €8,000-€12,000.

The vases were sold by an Irishman who lives in Dublin and wishes to remain anonymous. Auctioneer Philip Sheppard said the seller who had “bought them for a few hundred quid in an antiques shop in Dublin about 10 years ago” was “very excited and very pleased with the result”.

The Irish Timesspoke to the under-bidder who dropped out at €165,000. Mr Liang, who did not wish to give his first name, said he was a Chinese collector living in England who travelled to Durrow especially to try to buy the vases.

He was “disappointed”, and said the successful bidder might have paid “a bargain price”, because they “could be” worth much more. Mr Liang described the “imperial” vases, of a type known as “famille rose”, as “very special, very rare and very beautiful”.

Mr Sheppard said the buyer would have to pay €200,855 when fees were added.

He said the bottle-shaped vases had a six-character mark from the “Daoguang period”. The Daoguang Emperor ruled China between 1782 and 1850 during the Qing dynasty. The previous top price paid for Chinese porcelain at auction in Ireland was €110,000 – paid for a blue-and-white, 18th century Qianlong Emperor, Chinese vase – also at Sheppard’s – in March 2010. It was bought by a London dealer who resold it for €281,406 six months later. That vase was sold by a Carlow family who believed it was of only ornamental value.