HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Talk about your yard sale finds. A small china bowl purchased for $ 35 at a Connecticut yard sale turned out to be a rare 15th century Chinese artifact valued at between $ 300,000 and $ 500,000 that is about to be auctioned at Sotheby’s.
The white bowl decorated with cobalt blue paintings of flowers and other designs measures approximately 6 inches (16 centimeters) in diameter. An antique enthusiast came across the piece and thought it could be something special when looking around a yard sale in the New Haven area, according to Sotheby’s last year.
The piece, one of only seven such bowls known to exist in the world, will be auctioned on March 17 in New York as part of Sotheby’s Auction of Important Chinese Art.
The buyer, who is not named, paid the asking price of $ 35 and later sent information and photos to Sotheby’s asking for an evaluation. The auction house’s experts on Chinese ceramics and art, Angela McAteer and Hang Yin, get a lot of emails like this every week, but this was one they dream of.
“It was immediately clear to both of us that we were looking at something very, very special,” said McAteer, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of the Chinese artwork division. “The style of painting, the shape of the bowl, even just the color of the blue is very characteristic of that early, early 15th century period of porcelain.”
They confirmed it was from the 14th century, when they were able to look at it in person. There are no scientific tests, just the trained eyes and hands of specialists. The bowl was very smooth to the touch, the glaze was silky and the color and designs are typical of the period.
“All the features and characteristics are present that identify it as a product of the early Ming period,” said McAteer.
McAteer and Yin determined that the bowl dates back to the early 14th century during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, the third ruler of the Ming Dynasty, and was made for the Yongle court. Yongle court was known to have ushered in a new style for the porcelain ovens in Jingdezhen town, and the bowl is a quintessential Yongle product, according to Sotheby’s.
The bowl is made in the shape of a lotus bud or chicken heart. Inside, it is decorated with a medallion at the bottom and a quatrefoil motif surrounded by flowers. The outside contains four blossoms of lotus, peony, chrysanthemum and pomegranate flower. There are also intricate patterns on the top of both the outside and the inside.
McAteer said only six other such bowls are known, and most are in museums. There are no others in the United States. According to Sotheby’s, there are two at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, two at museums in London, and one at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.
How the bowl ended up at a Connecticut yard sale remains a mystery. McAteer said it may have been passed down from generation to generation from the same family who did not know how unique it was.
“It is always surprising to think that it is still happening, that these treasures can be discovered,” said McAteer. “It’s always very exciting for us as specialists when something we didn’t even know existed appears to appear out of nowhere.”