Chinese Bidders Send Price Soaring At Penzance Auction

Helped along by hectic bidding from the other side of the world, a damaged Chinese porcelain piece was sold for a staggering 40-fold increase on its estimated price at The Penzance Auction House.
 
Jan. 4, 2012 - PRLog -- PRESS RELEASE
To: News desk
From: David Lay
Today’s Date: 4th January 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


CHINESE BIDDERS SEND PRICE SOARING AT PENZANCE AUCTION

Helped along by hectic bidding from the other side of the world, a damaged Chinese porcelain piece was sold for a staggering 40-fold increase on its estimated price at The Penzance Auction House.

The “altarpiece” – a work of art designed to be set above or behind an altar – was listed at £400 to £600, but ended up as the antiques sale’s star performer at £25,000.

“Nine times out of ten we come pretty close with our price estimates, but I am delighted to confess that we got this one spectacularly wrong!”  said auctioneer David Lay.

“We had five phone lines open for the bidding.  There were some 30 people registered to bid, and most of them were from mainland China.  It was an amazing experience as the price soared.”

The Chinese were ultimately outbid, with the piece being sold to a specialist London-based dealer.

Mr Lay sold it on behalf of a mid-Cornwall vendor, at whose home he spotted it as part of a discarded table lamp on a coffee table.

“My eye was first caught by the light shade over it, but on closer inspection I found this really interesting altarpiece beneath the shade,” recalled Mr Lay.  

“It was clearly damaged and incomplete, but I still thought it had a lot of potential – just nowhere so much as eventually turned out to be the case!”

The altarpiece was in the form of a Tibetan “stupa” - a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship.

The 22cm piece was decorated in coloured enamels with lotus flowers, scrollage and grotesque masks on yellow and puce ground.

-Ends-


EDITOR’S NOTES

Contact: Helen Mulhern at Eventy – Marketing & PR on 01326 376273/ helen@eventy.co.uk

Photo: Please find attached a low res photo of the Chinese altarpiece.  Higher res images are available on request.

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Eventy - Marketing & PR is a full marketing consultancy with specialist skills in PR and communications. For full info visit www.eventy.co.uk
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