Chinese Antique News

It’s always advisable to declutter ones home on occasion. Partly, this is just to make you feel a little better and more comfortable in your own surroundings. Tidying up is often proclaimed to be good for the soul. In addition, however, you may just find that your home is hosting unexpected treasures.

That was certainly the case for one couple in West London, who learned that a matching pair of Chinese vases that had gathered dust on their mantle dated back to the Qianlong Emperor. Agreeing to send the vases to auction, the value was truly spectacular – the couple had been sitting on a slice of Chinese history for decades.

The couple called in an antiques expert for a valuation of their possessions, as they were planning a house move. Among the items valued were two Chinese vases, which were an inheritance gift obtained in the early 1950s. Ever since, the vases had sat atop a fireplace. They were deemed to be an aesthetically pleasing decoration, and nothing more.

Read morePair Of Qianlong Ruby Ground Sedan Vases Sell For £324,000

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.

Read moreCat Lady’s Qianlong Reticulated Vase Sells For 9 Million

In most family households the husband hands over his money to his wife to run the house and family. But in ancient China some guy decided to hide his money where his wife would never think to look.

600 years later his hidden money has been found, found in the crevice of an antique carved wooden head. The head was on view at an auction in China when an unsuspecting potential buyer notice something silver from a small crevice on the underside of the Ming dynasty head. After further investigation it was discovered that the shiny silver item was in fact a silver bank note worth the equivalent in its day of 28 kilograms of pure silver. The note had been folded into a 2.5cm square and pushed into an old crack on the underside of the head.

Read moreValuable Rare Banknote Found In Ming Dynasty Head

A 900 year old Ru ware washer is coming up for sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong In October and is expected to fetch more than $35 million dollars and break the record for Chinese ceramics which was achieved in 2014 by a Ming Doucai chicken cup bought by renowned collector Liu Yiqian.

Read moreRu Ware Washer Expected To Smash $36 Million Record

The tomb of a general and his princess wife buried on March 18, in the year 564, has been discovered in China.

Found tomb containing skeletons of General Zhao Xin and Princess Neé Liu.

The princess was the daughter of the Cong Ming King from the Northern Qi Dynasty, which existed for just 27 years and was one of the shortest and mysterious dynasties in Chinese history.

The ancient tomb, which contained the couple’s skeletons, was also filled with figurines.

Apart from the remains of the couple, 80 exquisite coloured figurines have also been found inside their tomb chamber.

A sandstone inscription found in the tomb describes the life of the couple Zhao Xin and his wife, Princess Neé Liu. The inscription says (in translation), “On the 20th day of the second moon of the third year of the Heqing period [a date researchers said corresponds to March 18, 564], they were buried together.”

Zhao was the son of the leader of a local tribe and was born with a general title, according to the inscription, which was written in ancient Chinese.

The man was born with a general title and was promoted three times in his life. When he died at the age of 67, he was the general of a garrison of solders at Huangniu Town, leading some 5,000 soldiers.

The man’s presence could ‘command a hundred cities and scare off 10,000 men’, said the inscription.

As a reward to his loyal service, Zhao was given three more titles after he had passed away, including the Jiabiaoqi Great General and the local executive of Chanshan County.

Of Princess Neé Liu, the inscription says that “by nature, she was modest and humble, and sincerity and filial piety were her roots. Her accommodating nature was clear, her behavior respectful and chaste.”

Read moreChinese General & Princess Tomb Filled With Figurines

The 2ft 2in (66cm) high vase in hexagonal mallet form was consigned by a West Midlands vendor after it had descended through the family.

Managing director Charles Hanson told ATG that it was acquired by the consignor’s great-aunt in Cornwall, who was a dealer and collector, probably in the 1920s or 1930s.

Read moreQianlong vase in Derbyshire found & carries a £300,000-500,000 estimate!