A prized Chinese vase dismissed by a BBC antiques expert as merely a ‘clever reproduction’ went on to sell for £53million after sitting in a loft for four decades.
The fate of the Qianlong Imperial treasure has come under renewed spotlight – having stunned dealers when uncovered and put under the hammer by a west London firm.
The family who owned the vase displayed it on 1970s BBC show Going For A Song, seen as the predecessor to still-running programme Antiques Roadshow.
One of the experts appeared unimpressed, with reports suggesting that could have been Going For A Song president and resident expert Arthur Negus.
Yet it went on to become the most expensive piece of Chinese porcelain ever to come on to the market – eventually.
The heirloom had remained in a family loft, in Pinner in north-west London, before an elderly woman invited in Bainbridges auction house in Ruislip, west London, for a house clearance following the deaths of her sister and brother-in-law.
Just months beforehand, the vase had been valued at £800 – yet the Ruislip firm suspected it could be worth more and carried out wider consultation.
The 16in-tall vase, featuring a fish motif on the front and gold banding, was made for the Chinese emperor Qianlong who ruled between 1736 to 1795.
It was looted from the Imperial Summer Palace during the infamous raids by the British and the French in 1860.
After finally emerging for sale in 2010, it was scrutinised in a Bainbridges storeroom by Luan Grocholski, an expert in ceramics who worked for Sotheby’s.
He later said: ‘I saw and just thought it couldn’t be true – I realised the quality was fantastic, and assumed it was a very high quality copy.’
He carried out six weeks’ of research persuading him the artefact was genuine – but even then he and the auction house limited their value estimate to between £800,000 and £1.2million, little knowing just how avid Chinese potential buyers would prove.
The Mail revealed in 2010 how the vase belonged to an elderly man who inherited it from his uncle, an explorer who travelled frequently to the Far East.
Tony Johnson, from the Isle of Wight, and his mother Gene then inherited it from her late sister, Patricia Newman, the elderly man’s widow, in January 2010.
The family initially called in Bainbridges after one of their flyers was put through Gene’s letterbox and she was visited by sale room manager David Reay.
At the time the family actually thought the bookcase on which the vase stood would be more valuable – the case would ultimately sell instead for £200 among other personal effects fetching a total £7,000.
Mr Reay later recalled of his first visit to the Pinner home: ‘I saw a few nice things – a lovely grandfather clock and some old books.
‘Then a vase on top of the bookcase caught my eye. It was on a tall bookcase. It had been there for God knows how long – it was covered in dust.
‘I said, “Oh, that looks nice” – they told me it had been valued at just £800 two months earlier.
‘They also told me the owner had taken it on Going For A Song on the BBC about 40 years ago. He was told it was a very clever reproduction.’
He then took the vase back to the Bainbridges auction house, where Mr Grocholski told him it was ‘either the best replica in the world or it’s worth millions’.
The family owning the vase watched in disbelief as frantic bidding in Ruislip in November 2010 changed their fortunes in a matter of minutes, with bidding suddenly rocketed from £500,000 to tens of millions.
The auction got off to a slow start, with six live bidders and three telephone bidders still in the game, but then the interested parties narrowed to two as the price soared into tens of millions.
It took less than two minutes to rack up the final £20million, climaxing at £53million – £43million in the winning bid alone, but bumped up by VAT and commission.
Auctioneer and company director Peter Bainbridge shouted ‘Sold’ and slammed his gavel so hard on the rostrum, it shattered into several pieces.
Mr Reay said after the auction in November 2010, at which the shocked family made their fortune: ‘What’s so wonderful about it is they are very normal people.
‘They don’t have a lot. The mother just couldn’t speak, she was in tears.
‘They stayed at the back of the room, out of sight, and no one knew they were there, not even Peter Bainbridge.
‘This is the biggest shock of their lives. The mum said to me, “If only this had happened to me 30 years ago”.’
When asked whether this was his firm’s largest ever sale, he laughed as he told reporters: ‘Believe it or not, our largest sale before this vase was $160,000.’
Peter Bainbridge himself said of the event: ‘There was a silence that wrapped itself around the sale as the figure grew slowly but surely up to the sky. I’m an auctioneer, so at that point, I’m just doing the professional job I’m paid to do.
‘But once the hammer’s down, you do take stock slightly and think, “Oh, wow, that’s really rather a lot of money”.’
The vase’s Chinese buyer was said to be a Beijing-based industrialist who wanted to remain anonymous.
But the story did not end with the final cry of ‘Sold’ in November 2010 – instead, a payment dispute dragged on over the ensuing years.
The billionaire buyer was reported to have balked at paying an extra 20 per cent in auctioneers fees on top of his winning bid.
Mr Bainbridge, who owned the auction house in Ruislip, spent months trying to save the deal by negotiating with the buyer but with no success.
After a two-year stalemate, a new unidentified buyer from the Far East put in a new offer through Bonhams auction house which said in January 2013: ‘We are pleased to confirm the sale of the vase for an undisclosed sum, in a private treaty deal.’
Mr Bainbridge retired after 45 years in 2023 and his firm in Ruislip was acquired by antiques expert Adam Partridge, a regular presence on TV shows such as Flog It!, Bargain Hunt, Dickinson’s Real Deal and Cash In the Attic.
Mr Partridge said in an announcement at the time: ‘I grew up in Ealing and remember attending Bainbridge’s auctions from an early age, including a house sale just around the corner from my school.
‘Peter Bainbridge was probably the first auctioneer I ever saw live and was definitely a major influence on my future career choice.
‘I am therefore delighted to be able to acquire his business 40 years later! He has a great reputation and over 40 years of successful trading as the leading and longest established auction house in West London, not to mention the famous £43million vase sold in 2010.’