I bought £20 jars from a charity shop and now they’re selling for £50,000 – how to spot a second-hand gem
A MAN who bought two £20 jars from a charity shop is now poised to sell them for a whopping £50,000.
The eagle-eyed buyer spotted the pair of Chinese jars made from doucai porcelain at a London charity shop.
As a young professional who collects ceramics, he bought the jars because of their aesthetic look.
But he didn’t realise their enormous value til later when he showed the jars to his local auctioneers.
The lucky buyer found that the jars were made in the Qing dynasty Imperial kilns in the 18th century.
The 4.5ins high lotus and chrysanthemum jars are finely painted in underglaze blue and enamelled in red, yellow and green.
They have roundels of flower heads interspersed with leafy lotus meanders, and crucially display the Qianlong six character seal mark.
The vendor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has agreed to give a “significant” portion of the proceeds of the sale to the undisclosed charity.
If they achieve their estimate, the jars will fetch 2,500 times what the vendor paid for them.
Bill Forrest, auctioneer at Roseberrys who are conducting the sale, told the Mirror: “Whenever I read a similar story, my first reaction is sadness at the charity missing out.
“But in this instance the vendor, a London young professional, was not aware of the jars’ worth.
“He is someone who is passionate about ceramics and showed me photos of glass cupboards in his home full of them.
“He was drawn to the jars as decorative pieces.
“When I told him what they are worth he said he would give a significant portion of the sale proceeds to the charity, which is really nice to hear.
“Charity shop workers do great work but they are not specialists and they get given such an enormous quantity of items they can’t thoroughly investigate them all.”
He continued: “I suppose this shows the value of specialists.
“These jars have the six-character seal mark but there are so many fakes out there you have to do more diligence.
“However, when you have studied Imperial porcelain it exudes an indescribable power, and this example from the 18th century is when Chinese porcelain was at its zenith.
“The craftsmanship is unmistakable and this led me to believe that they are of the period that the mark suggests.”
The sale takes place tomorrow.
How to spot the best deals at a charity shop
- Choose your area
As a rule of thumb, the posher the area, the better quality the clothes that are donated.
You never know what you might find, from someone’s cast-off Dior blouse to a pair of hardly-worn Nike trainers.
- Don’t hang around
If you see something you like, don’t be afraid to pull the trigger.
While it is good not to make a purchase too hastily, if you can afford something and you really like it then it’s worth buying it before someone else spots it.
- Look out for cut-off labels
Some of your favourite high street stores will have deals with local charity shops to donate stock that isn’t sold during their own sales.
Often part of the deal is that they need to cut the labels off the clothes.
So it’s worth keeping an eye out for items that have had the labels purposely cut off.
- Timeless or quirky
You probably aren’t going to find the latest trends in charity shops.
So a good rule of thumb is to either buy timeless pieces such as trench coats, black dresses or suits, or something totally unique.
That way you will buy items which should be fashionable regardless of when they were made.