By ARTINFO
Published online: February 3, 2011
Where do you go when you find a fancy-looking bit of Chinese porcelain in your cupboard? It seems that provincial British auction houses may be your best bet. Last year, a fish-bedecked porcelain Qianglong-era vase fetched $85 million at Bainbridges Auction House in Middlesex, setting a world record for a Chinese work at auction. Now, a blue-and-white Ming moonflask will be sold at Dorset-based Duke's auctioneers, after being hauled in for sale in a cardboard box by a 79-year-old retired Cadbury worker. The 15th-century treasure is expected to go for £1 million ($1.6 million) when it hits the auction block on May 12.
The 11-and-a-half inch vase, which dates from 1403-1424 AD — the reign of Yongle, the third Ming emperor — boasts patterning influenced by Islamic design, a full, round body, a narrow neck, looping handles, and a small opening at its top. But the object is particularly remarkable due to its size: It is the largest such early Ming moonflask from the Yongle era ever seen.
It is not entirely clear why Chinese vases such as this one have been doing so phenomenally well at auction of late, although theories range from the ascendancy of the Chinese art market, to the fine craftsmanship of objects themselves, to the patriotism of Chinese collectors.
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