Chinese porcelain panels exceed estimates to make £172,760

A Charterhouse client from Egham, Surrey is set to have a great Christmas after they entered six Chinese porcelain panels into the December auction on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th where they sold for £172,760. Selling to a telephone bidder in Sichuan Province, China, who has only seen digital photographs of the panels; there was intense competition from other mainland China phone bidders along with several European bidders.

“Amazingly, the owners of the panels had them stored in their attic for several years. Although they thought the panels were valuable, they were pleasantly surprised when I estimated them at £30,000-40,000,” said auctioneer Richard Bromell. “We have had some staggering results for Chinese and European ceramics over the past couple of years, including an Italian majolica charger sold for £565,000, a similar set of Chinese porcelain panels for £300,000 and a damaged Chinese pottery censer at £154,250. Having seen the results we achieve on our website, they drove to our saleroom complex in Sherborne from Egham to enter their panels into our December auction”.

The panels comprised six mountain and river scenes. Decorated in famille verte and famille rose colours, they date to the Republican Period of 1911-1949. They had been a wedding present to the couple 30 years ago from the bride’s Chinese father, but after several house moves, they had been relegated to the attic where they sat gathering dust until they were taken over to Charterhouse at the Long Street Salerooms in Sherborne, Dorset.

“I am delighted with the result, you could hear a pin drop when the bidding hit £50,000 and when the hammer finally came down there was a long round of applause,” said Richard. “Overall there was very strong bidding on both days and the auction totalled £380,000, but sadly I have not been able to speak with the owners of the panels as they are currently on holiday in Hong Kong”.