THE REMAINING items from a Co Carlow family’s mystery hoard of Chinese porcelain have been consigned for sale by public auction.
The Irish Timeswas yesterday taken to "a secured facility" at a remote location in Co Laois where specialist art handler Tom McCann unlocked the storage chest.
Staff from Sheppard’s Irish Auction House in Durrow arrived and began opening boxes containing the previously unseen items.
As they removed layers of tissue paper to reveal some of the 76 fragile porcelain pieces, auctioneer Michael Sheppard said: “I really don’t know what we might find but this looks like a very interesting collection.”
The hoard attracted international attention earlier this year when a first tranche of 27 items was consigned to a general auction in March and a vase sensationally sold for over 1,000 times its estimated value.
A dealer from London and a collector from Beijing, who had both spotted the auction advertised on the internet, recognised a 12-inch high, blue-and-white porcelain vase as part of the personal collection of 18th-century Chinese emperor Qianlong.
They travelled to Co Laois and sparked frenzied bidding which resulted in the vase, which had an estimate of “€100 to €150”, being sold under the hammer for €110,000. When the buyer’s premium and VAT were added, the final price was €130,000. If either of the two bidders had not been present it is believed the vase might have been sold for its estimate.
An extended Co Carlow family, who have retained strict anonymity, inherited the porcelain from two sisters who emigrated to the United States in the 1940s.
It is understood that the women, who have since died, returned to live in Ireland with a collection of ceramics they had bought over many years from shops and markets.
It is believed that they acquired the items purely for their decorative value and paid nominal prices.
The family members were unaware of the potential value of the collection and did not attend the first auction in March.
Afterwards they were said to have been “shocked and delighted by the result”.
The vase was bought by a London antiques dealer, Richard Peters, who described his purchase as “a bargain” and who also paid €41,000 for a separate lot of two vases which carried the same low estimate.
He outbid Rong Chen, a collector from Beijing, who had also travelled to Ireland for the auction.
Mr Peters, who runs an antiques shop in Kensington, declined to comment recently when asked if he had sold the vase.
He claimed that the market for Chinese ceramics was “very strong at the moment” but declined to reveal the asking price which he would only disclose to “collectors who are seriously interested”.
Both Mr Peters and Ms Chen are expected to return to Co Laois in late November for the auction which will be held in Durrow.
But the likelihood of a “bargain” next time has diminished with the sale expected to generate further significant interest from international dealers and collectors of Chinese porcelain.
Philip Sheppard, another member of the family-run auctioneers, said the firm did not have the expertise to estimate the value of oriental ceramics
but had the ability to “market the sale to the right clientele”. The newly consigned porcelain would be offered for sale as “decorative items with similarly low estimates” as happened on the previous occasion.
He expected the auction “to attract worldwide interest”.