Cat Lady’s Qianlong Reticulated Vase Sells For 9 Million

A Chinese porcelain vase that lay hidden in open view for fifty years sold for nine million dollars at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong. The eighteenth-century vase was found in an eighty-year-old woman’s home in Europe by art consultant Johan Bosch van Rosenthal.

The owner is said to have inherited the vase which cost a meagre fifty-six dollars when first purchased from an auction house in 1954.

The reticulated vase, which is very fragile withstood the attention of the owners four cats. “It is a miracle that this extraordinarily fragile vase survived half a century in a home surrounded by countless pets,” said Nicolas Chow, chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, in a press release.

The vase which was named after the collector who owned it before the 1954 auction (Harry Garner) was made for the Qianlong emperor. It is of a blue and white floral design, and with a pear shape body and reticulated design and was made under the supervision of the great porcelain master Tang Ying during the period of 1736 and 1795.

Johan Bosch van Rosenthal had been asked by the woman to value her collection, which she had inherited some time ago. Along with the vase he discovered a Ming dynasty table which sold for eight million dollars and a Ming dynasty couch bed which sold for six million dollars as well as a Ming dynasty porcelain jar which sold for over four million dollars.

Not bad considering what the pets could have done over the years.