10 Incredibly Valuable Chinese Antiques Discovered Accidentally

It is common in comedy for a clumsy person entering an antique shop to inevitably knock over a precariously positioned and priceless Ming vase. For centuries, collectors in the West have sought out the rarest Chinese antiques, of which Ming vases are just the most famous. As China has boomed economically recently, prices for Chinese artwork have skyrocketed.

This has resulted in people who were about to throw away an old pot or donate a broken plate to a junk shop to suddenly discover that they actually owned something that was worth a fortune. Here are ten instances where Chinese antiques proved to be a godsend.

Related: 10 Amazing Antiques Roadshow Discoveries

10 £1 million collection in the attic

Cleaning out the attic can be one of the most annoying tasks for any homeowner. It’s dusty and full of spiders, and then you have to decide which of the things you’ve stored over the years are worth keeping and which should be thrown in the trash. However, sometimes you may just strike gold.

Edward Radcliffe became an antiques dealer shortly before the Second World War and over the course of his career built up a fine collection of Chinese antiques. Some of them were so exquisite that he loaned them to museums around the world. But for some reason, after his death, this collection was dumped in the attic and forgotten for over 50 years before his family decided to have it appraised.

One of the stars of the collection was an enamel box made for the Xuande Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century. It’s phenomenally rare to find one, as there are only four of them in the world. The family must have been delighted when it was valued at £10,000 at auction. They must have been incredible when the hammer fell and it sold for £288,000. Since the rest of the collection was also sold, the whole thing raised almost a million pounds.^[1]

9 “Teapot”

The British love a cup of tea, so it’s not unusual to find an elderly relative keeping a teapot or two in their home. In 2020, a man finally sorted through the things his parents had stored in the attic. He found a plastic bag containing a tiny metal and enamel teapot that his father had brought from China in the 1940s. He thought of taking it to a charity shop. Instead it was taken to an auctioneer who valued it at £100-150.

It quickly became clear that it was actually something more special than a teapot. It turned out to be an imperial wine jug made for the Qianlong Emperor in the 18th century, and one of only three in the world. On auction day, nine bidders from around the world competed to own the tiny masterpiece, and it ultimately sold for £380,000.

The owner, a construction worker, was delighted with his sudden fortune. When asked what he would do with the money, he suggested buying a metal detector. Who knows what treasures he might find if he’s so lucky.^[2]

8 Imperial vase

Familiarity breeds contempt, so something we see every day is often overlooked. One day, when an auctioneer was visiting a friend’s house, he noticed that an old vase that was in the kitchen looked very special. The tall vase had been bought for a few hundred pounds and was a lovely piece of porcelain – but it wasn’t all that exciting to the owners.

It was only years later that the piece, made at the imperial court of the Qianlong Emperor, was offered for sale and collectors began to get excited. The deep blue vase is decorated with gold and silver and depicts cranes and bats flying against a cloudy sky. A vase of this age, with this decoration and of this size caused a stir and was estimated at around 100,000 pounds.

Bidding was fierce and the vase sold for £1.2 million. Not bad for an old thing shoved into the kitchen.^[3]

7 Change bowl

Ceramic is a sturdy material, but it breaks and becomes damaged easily. For antique collectors, even the smallest splinter can destroy the value of a piece, so most will do anything to protect their treasures. A family inherited a bowl that belonged to a well-known collector of Chinese antiques, but did not care for it with the care he would have liked. They placed it in a guest room where friends left their keys and coins during their stay.

Just out of curiosity, they brought the 9-inch-wide, turquoise-glazed bowl to an open house at an auction event. It immediately turned out that it had been made for the early Ming imperial court. The object, known as a daffodil bowl, left appraisers with trembling hands and the owners were happy to be able to auction it off.

The bowl sold for £240,000. Hopefully the new owner doesn’t throw metal objects in there.^[4]

6 Broken umbrella stand

Sometimes we are given things and we don’t know what to do with them, but we keep them anyway for sentimental reasons. A couple in England were given a blue and white vase as a gift and didn’t think about it again for 50 years. They relegated it to a guest room, and since it was about the right size, they put their umbrellas in it. Needless to say, this was not the right way to treat the vase.

It turned out that the vase had been made for the court of the Qianlong Emperor and had survived centuries largely intact. Unfortunately, the years of use as an umbrella stand had left their mark on the vase, as it had cracks and scars on the inside. Despite the damage, it was still estimated to be worth around £500,000.

The buyers seemed to be able to overlook the hard life the vase had endured and ended up paying £765,000.^[5]

5 Umbrella stand

Priceless Chinese vases must have something that makes people look at them and think, “That would make an excellent umbrella stand.” When an expert at Christie’s auction house noticed a large blue and white dragon vase that had once served as an umbrella stand, He asked the French owners if he could visit them personally. When he looked at it, he knew that the vase was a perfect example of 15th-century Ming imperial ceramics.

Miraculously, the umbrella stand phase of the vase’s life had left no trace on the flawless glaze. The large dragon motif was as fresh as the day it had been painted by the imperial artisans. When the vase was auctioned in Hong Kong, enthusiastic bidders raised $20,447,642.^[6]

4 Yard Sale Bowl

Everyone likes a bargain, and nowhere is it easier to get a great deal than at a flea market. People use garage sales to get rid of the various things that they have accumulated over the years and that they generally just want out of the house. For $35, you can snag a pretty bowl for your home—or one that could make you a fortune at auction.

When a buyer saw a small blue and white bowl at a garage sale, he liked it so much that he didn’t bother to haggle over the $35 price. Almost immediately, they suspected they had bought something special and alerted an auction house. The bowl was determined to be Ming porcelain, made in the early 15th century in a shape called a lotus bowl – of which there are only six examples in museums around the world.

The bowl sold for $721,800, just 29,000 times more than it was purchased.^[7]

3 Qianlong vase

Thrift stores are great places to browse for unusual things because you never know what people have donated. You can shop cheaply and support a good cause at the same time. Sometimes you really find something special.

A buyer spotted a somewhat gaudy-looking vase with yellow glaze and Chinese characters painted on it. Since the price was only £1, they decided to buy it. Thinking the vase might be worth a little more, they put the vase up for sale on eBay. However, when the price skyrocketed, they removed the vase from the website and showed the vase to an auctioneer.

The vase was made at the court of the Qianlong Emperor and a mark on the base stated that it was not intended for export from the country. How it ended up in a charity shop in England is unknown. The vase sold at auction for £480,000. ^[8]

2 Brush pot donation

Thrift stores don’t always let valuable antiques slip through their fingers. Volunteers who sort donated items often receive advice on how to identify potentially important pieces and show them to experts. When a worker at St. Peter’s Hospice charity shop in Bristol, England, picked up a cracked old wooden pot that had been dropped off and for some reason suspected it might be something special – even though it didn’t look very promising.

The pot turned out to be a brush pot used in calligraphy and was made from bamboo around 1700, which may explain why it had so many cracks. Not only did the pot feature a charmingly carved landscape scene, but it was also created by Gu Jue, one of the greatest bamboo workers of his time.

Luckily for the charity, this precious little item didn’t end up on their shelves and was sold for a pittance. It was auctioned and sold for £360,000, far exceeding its estimate of £15,000.^[9]

1 Shoebox vase

If this list does nothing else, it should get you thinking about clearing out your attic. The ultimate case of treasure lurking in the attic comes from France and involves one of the most beautiful Chinese vases ever offered for sale.

The Sotheby’s auctioneer may have missed this discovery, as the vase’s owner simply sent them an email saying she had found some Asian items in her attic as she prepared to move, but they did couldn’t send photos. Some other details she shared with us suggested they might be worth a look, so they invited her to bring them. When she took the subway, she carried the vase in a shoebox. The owners had relegated it to the attic after deciding it was “too pink” for their taste.

The vase with its animal motifs was so beautiful that even if it had been a copy of its appearance, it would still have been worth 100,000 euros. However, the experts recognized it as real. It was actually a vase made for the Qianlong Emperor’s birthday and was estimated at 700,000 euros at auction. When bidding began, it exceeded this value and was eventually sold for €16,182,800.^[10]