£1/2m for rare Ming vase they turned into a lamp
AN old vase crudely turned into a table lamp has sold for £550,000 after being spotted as a 15th century treasure from the Chinese Ming dynasty. Without the damage it could have sold for millions.
A hole had been drilled in the base and a wooden stand added which obscured the mark of the Emperor Xuande.
The two halves of the vase, originally an incense burner, had been roughly stuck together and a metal top attached.
Its elderly owner, who did not adapt the vase himself, had no idea of the value when he took it to Duke’s auction house in Dorchester, Dorset. Guy Schwinge from Duke’s said: “It is tempting to speculate how many millions the vase would have fetched if it had not been damaged when it was converted.”