HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Talk about your findings about your garden sale. A small porcelain bowl bought for $ 35 at a sale in Connecticut turns out to be a rare 15th-century Chinese artifact between $ 300,000 and $ 500,000 that will be auctioned at Sotheby’s.
The white bowl, decorated with cobalt blue paintings of flowers and other designs, is about 16 centimeters in diameter. An antique enthusiast came across the piece and thought it might be something special if he searched a garden sale in the New Haven area last year, according to Sotheby’s.
The piece, one of only seven such bowls known in the world, will be auctioned in New York on March 17 as part of Sotheby’s Auction of Important Chinese Art.
The buyer, whose name is not mentioned, paid the price of $ 35 and later emailed information and photos to Sotheby’s to ask for an evaluation. The auction house’s experts on Chinese ceramics and art, Angela McAteer and Hang Yin, receive many such emails each week, but this is one of the kind they dream about.
“It was clear to both of us that we were looking at something very, very special,” said McAteer, senior vice president of Sotheby’s and head of the Chinese artwork department. “The painting style, the shape of the bowl, even just the color of the blue is very characteristic of the early, early 15th century period of porcelain.”
They confirmed that it was from the 1400s when they could look at it in person. There are no scientific tests, only the trained eyes and hands of specialists. The bowl was very smooth to the touch, its luster was silky and the color and designs are characteristic of the period.
“All the features and characteristics are there that identify it as a product of the early Ming period,” McAteer said.
McAteer and Yin determined that the bakkie dates from the early 1400s during the reign of the Yongle emperor, the third ruler of the Ming dynasty, and was made for Yongle court. Yongle Court was known to usher in a new style of porcelain kiln in the city of Jingdezhen, and according to Sothebys, the bowl is a core product of Yongle.
The bowl was made in the shape of a lotus bud or chicken heart. Inside it is decorated with a medal at the bottom and a square motif surrounded by flowers. The outside contains four blossoms of lotus, peony, chrysanthemum and pomegranate flower. There are also intricate patterns at the top of both the outside and the inside.
McAteer said it is known that only six other such bowls exist, and most of them are in museums. No one else is in the United States. According to Sotheby’s, there are two at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, two at museums in London and one at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.
How the bowl ended up at a sale in Connecticut remains a mystery. McAteer said it is possible that it is passed down through generations of the same family who do not know how unique it is.
“It’s always amazing to think that it’s still happening, that these treasures can be discovered,” McAteer said. “It’s always very exciting for us as specialists when something we do not even know here appears to exist out of nowhere.”