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Chinese porcelain Dragon jar valued at £6,000 fetches £4.8m at auction
A Chinese porcelain jar which was estimated at £6,000-£9,000 has fetched a £4.8 million at a sale in San Francisco after two bidders disagreed with the auction house's expert opinion that the jar was an elaborate and expensive fake.
By Peter Foster, Beijing 12:17PM GMT 15 Dec 2010
Although the unique blue and white Dragon jar carried the mark of the Emperor Qianlong, who reigned from 1736-95, experts at Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco said they believed the piece was in fact made 150 years later during the late Qing period, probably in the early 1900s.
The blue and white porcelain Dragon jar with a pre-estimate sale price of just $10,000-15,000
"The vase had the reign mark of the Qianlong Emperor, but some of these vases are genuine, and some are not," said Colin Sheaf, head of Asia art at Bonhams in London, "after careful assessment, we were happy to catalogue this as Late Qing or the Republic period."
At least two anonymous telephone bidders from mainland China saw the pot very differently, however, bidding as if it was an original piece from the Qianlong period, probably from around 1740-50. "The bidders obviously believed it was 'exactly what it said on the tin'," added Mr Sheaf.
The 14in jar is described as "decorated with bands of plantain leaves, waves, and six meticulously rendered five-clawed dragons portrayed emerging from crashing waves and flying amid stylized clouds and flames."
The price, which was more than double what Bonhams say they would have estimated had they believed it to be the genuine article, reflects the growing demand for Chinese imperial art and porcelain from wealthy Chinese collectors which has seen records tumbling this year.
Mr Sheaf concluded that "only history will tell" whose verdict was correct, adding that only surefire way of telling would be to drilling out a tiny hole in the base and perform chemical analysis of the fired clay.
