Buyers flocked to Tennants Auctioneers today, in North Yorkshire from all areas of China, to bid on a rare vase recently discovered by Rodney Tennant on a routine house visit.
The Vase (lot 213A) was a blue and white porcelain bottle vase made in the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, (1722-1736). Having spent over 40 years in one house the vase had survived being knocked over by the family cat and had even escaped all damage when the children played football around it!
Today, the Oriental Ceramics section of the sale got off to a strong start and despite all of the excitement from previous lots there was a hushed silence in the packed saleroom as this particular vase went under the hammer.
There was a 10 minute bidding battle between the room and the 8 phone lines. Eventually 2 phones bidders went head to head and the room erupted in to rapturous applause as the hammer went down at 2.6million.
