Ming vase used as £8.50 doorstop in Essex sells for £3,400

An £8.50 vase that "sat in the corner of a downstairs loo" has sold for £3,400 after auctioneers linked it to the Chinese Ming Dynasty.

The vase belonged to Amanda Lawler, whose daughter Mary bought it for her in a charity shop in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex in 2020.

Mrs Lawler said she used the ornament as "an occasional doorstop" and almost threw it away when she moved house.

The piece sold at Lockdales Auctioneers near Ipswich on Thursday for £3,400.

Mrs Lawler had kept the vase, saying she later saw an "identical" one on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, valued up to £10,000.

Speaking ahead of the auction, Mrs Lawler said she had tasked her daughter with finding an ornament for the WC, and was pleased when she was sent a photo of the vase in a shop with the asking price of £8.50.

However, she had suggested her daughter try "offering a fiver for it... which she would not do as it was a charity shop".

"It just sat in the corner of the downstairs loo for quite a while," Mrs Lawler said.

One day she spotted a post on social media about a Ming vase featured on an episode of Antiques Roadshow.

The programme's specialist Lars Tharp had valued a vase on the show at between £5,000 and £10,000.

"I looked at the pictures and thought, that looks very much like our vase," Mrs Lawler said.

She showed it to auctioneers Lockdales - and their specialist Liza Machan agreed.

"It was one of those 'I'm just going to sit down for a little bit' moments," said Mrs Lawler.

Ms Machan said: "The vase had the provenance of having an identical one on the Antiques Roadshow - and to an extent we were relying on the provenance of the BBC programme."

She said it seemed likely the Essex vase was one of a pair that had been donated to charity but split up, as they were both purchased from shops for a similar price - less than £10 each.

"There was a lot of interest in it pre-auction," Ms Machan said.

It was put into the auction with a guide price of between £3,000 and £4,000 - going under the hammer for £3,400.

The vase is understood to have been purchased by a private collector, probably from the UK.

Mrs Lawler said as her daughter Mary had found it and paid for it, she was likely to get the "lion's share" of the sale price.

Her daughter's old VW Golf car needed some work, and she said the money would be used to do it up.

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