At first glance, this blue-and-white pen holder may only look like an ordinary "Chinese-style" stationery, but in fact it is a fake cultural relic from the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, which has a history of more than 400 years.
Until it was discovered its true value, the owner of this pen holder had been casually placing it in his home as a decoration. What the family did not expect was that their "decorations" could be sold at The Swords auction house for £125,000 (107,571,200 yuan), and with a handling fee, the anonymous buyer would have to pay a sky-high price of £162,500 (1,376,912 yuan).
At one time, Chinese porcelain was very popular among the Western nobility, which also led to the British merchants at that time to purchase a large amount of porcelain from the far east and ship it back to Britain. The pen holder was acquired by the seller's ancestors from Guangdong Province in the 1850s, and he brought this exquisite artifact back to England and passed it on to his descendants. The family, who asked not to be named, also sold several other artifacts brought back from China by their ancestors for nearly £200,000 (1,721,140 yuan).
Yexue Li, head of Asian sales at Sworders Auction House, said: "At present, the price of porcelain in the Kangxi period is very high, and this pen holder with calligraphy works represents a key moment in the early history of the Qing Dynasty, where the emperor consolidated the loyalty of courtiers by writing poems and stories on porcelain and left their names in the long river of Chinese history. Moreover, the blue and white porcelain of the Kangxi period was once favored by European collectors. ”
Over the past decade, China's new wealthy collectors have sought to "buy back" their artifacts, leading to a surge in demand for such collections. Li Yexue also said: "Such cultural relics have become the collection that Oriental is keen on, and we are very happy to be able to obtain such a high price for the seller." The seller's family watched the auction online and was surprised by the hammer price of the pen holder, as they had been treating it as an ornament in their home. ”
This article is the subject of: Ginger Emperor Penguin. Edit: Jessicazhu