A small vase bought from a British thrift store for £2.50 ($3.20) by an eagle-eyed couple has turned out to be a rare Japanese artifact that could sell for over £10,000 ($13,000) when it comes to auction.
A woman named Karen and her partner Ahmet (the couple chose to remain anonymous) spotted the small cloisonné vase while shopping. In a statement, Karen said Ahmet showed her the vase in the shop and she was initially “a bit dismissive” until he told her to look at the base which had etched markings.
“I always head to the books and he goes looking for art and vintage stuff. He’s not an expert, but he has great taste and an instinct for the ‘real thing,'” she said.
A small vase made by Namikawa Yasuyuki will be auctioned. Photo courtesy of Canterbury Auction Galleries
The couple, who live in Epsom, returned home with the vase and contacted Canterbury Auction Galleries to authenticate the work. The auction house determined that the vase was the work of 19th-century cloisonne artist (and former samurai) Namikawa Yasuyuki.
“He was all shaking!” Karen talked about Ahmet’s reaction.
Cliona Gibson, co-director of the auction house, called the roughly four-inch tall vase “astonishing”.
“The exceptionally fine workmanship and naturalistic depiction of roosters and hens against a black background, with birds flying overhead, was kind of his trademark,” she said.
Yasuyuki was a samurai who started his career as a compartmentalized artist around 1868, at the dawn of the Meiji era. He worked for the Kyoto Cloisonné Company from 1871 to 1874, before founding his own studio and presenting his work in international exhibitions. In 1896, he was appointed imperial craftsman at the court of Emperor Meiji and then retired in 1915.
Yasuyuki’s works, exemplary of Japanese enamel, have been collected by institutions ranging from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art.
The vase will be auctioned online on July 29 and the couple plan to use the proceeds from the sale to go on holiday, with the rest going to the charity that ran the thrift store.
A Yasuyuki vase sold to a Bonhams Auction in 2010 for around $105,000.
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