A flower porcelain bowl bought for $ 35 at an auction in Connecticut last year was sold at an auction of Sotheby’s just over $ 700,000.
Only after the bakkie has been evaluated by experts from Sotheby’s does the site visitor discover that he is buying a rare 15th-century Chinese bakkie. There are only six other as-known companions left that exist around the world, Live Science reported earlier.
Experts estimate the bowl, which is shaped like a lotus bud and painted with cobalt blue flower patterns, between $ 300,000 and $ 500,000. But on Wednesday (March 17), after a battle between four bidders at Sotheby’s Important Chinese Art auction in New York, the bowl sold for $ 721,800, more than 20,000 times its asking price at the garden sale.
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The bowl dates from the reign of the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, known as the Yongle emperor, who ruled from 1403 to 1424. The Yongle court, for which the bowl was made, brought a new porcelain style to China, according to the previous Live Science report.
It was “a style which is immediately recognizable, never surpassed, and which still defined the vessel in the eighteenth century,” according to the listing of the Sotheby’s for the bowl.
“With more than five centuries of history, the bowl has an incredible story,” from Yongle Court to present-day Connecticut to Sotheby’s York Avenue Chamber of Deputies, Angela McAteer, Sotheby’s Head of the Chinese Department of Art in New York , said in a statement. “When we first looked at the pickup, we the team immediately recognized the quality of this undisputed gem, and it’s a reminder that precious works of art remain hidden in the eye and waiting to be found.”
Originally published on Live Science.