Woman nearly throws out vase worth £18,000

For the John Nicholson’s customer, a declutter could have led to ‘disastrous’ consequences. She was on the verge of handing over an 
old vase to a charity shop when her instincts got the better of her.

She had picked it up in a junk shop in the 1960s for £5 and had left it to gather dust in the attic.

Luckily for her, she instead took it to John Nicholson’s for valuation. The Fernhurst auction house immediately identified it as an 18th-century Ming-style blue and white porcelain bottle vase, with seal and mark of Qianlong.

It was sold at auction for an incredible £18,000.

The auction house will be holding another of its popular valuation days today (Friday, April 10) at 10am.

John Nicholson said: “You’ve all seen the Antiques Roadshow.

“Every week people bring in things that a relative has left them in a will, they have had stored in a cardboard box for years and never thought about or have simply picked up at a car boot sale along with a host of other things.

“Sometimes they prove to be a real find worth tens of thousands of pounds but, even more often, they turn out to be just a few hundred or a little more.

“But that’s a welcome sum, too. What is amazing is just how often people have no idea that these items have any value whatsoever.”

See www.johnnicholsons.com