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Bought at a garage sale for $ 35 (€ 22), a rare Chinese porcelain bowl was auctioned in the United States for $ 721,800 (€ 600,000).
The value paid for the 15th century bowl was significantly above the 500,000 dollars (420,000 euros) that the auctioneer Sotheby’s estimated as the maximum sale value, and represents 29 thousand times what was paid last year for the object, found in New Haven, Connecticut.
Angela McAteer, a Chinese art expert at Sotheby’s, told CNN that the rare object is known as the “lotus bowl” due to its resemblance to the lotus flower, and has its origins in the court of the Yongle Emperor (1403 -1424). , in China, during which porcelain production techniques flourished.
The bowl “has an incredibly smooth porcelain body” and “a really oily satin sheen” that “has never been replicated in future Chinese kingdoms or dynasties,” McAteer said.
Measuring 6 inches in diameter, the blue and white piece features lotus, peony, chrysanthemum and pomegranate flower decorations, and was likely used in the Chinese imperial court, according to a Sotheby’s expert.
“The Yongle Emperor really promoted the artistic importance of porcelain” by making utilitarian objects “true works of art,” McAteer said.
Only six similar bowls are known, found in the National Palace Museum (Taipei), the British Museum (UK) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (UK).
The identity of the buyer was not disclosed by Sotheby’s, which also withheld information about the person who made the find at a New Haven yard sale.
To antique hunters, the Sotheby’s specialist recommends that they “seek balance and harmony in design” and “evaluate the quality and know-how used in their manufacture.”
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