Sometimes, a visit to a thrift store can really be like a treasure hunt, and you never know what surprises you'll encounter around the next corner.
Just like Jessica Vincent's experience this time, she accidentally found an incredible treasure in an ordinary second-hand store.
One day in June, at a Goodwill second-hand store in Virginia, 43-year-old Jessica was casually strolling, her eyes scanning all kinds of VCRs, lamps and glassware. Nothing particularly appealed to her, until her gaze landed on a dazzling glass vase.
She walked around the store, eventually attracted by the red and green vase in the shape of a wine bottle. There was a small "M" on the bottom of the vase, which she guessed might be a reference to Murano, the historic home of Italian glasswork.
Jessica chuckled in her heart, and suddenly felt that this bottle was not ordinary!
Jessica initially guessed that the bottle might be worth $1,800, but when she looked into it a little, she realized that the treasure was more precious than she thought.
In second-hand stores, there was no price tag for the bottle, Jessica thought, and would have shelled out $8.99 at most. As soon as the bill was checked, the bottle was cheaper than estimated, at $3.99.
Immediately after returning home, she joined several glass appreciation Facebook groups to find out what the bottle was. Some people in the group said that it could be the work of the Italian master Carlo Scarpa, and recommended that she go to Wright Auction House.
Carlo Scarpa
She sent a few photos, and Wright, the owner of the auction house, called almost immediately. He said that when he looked at the photos, he felt that the bottle was not simple.
Then, on Wednesday, the vase was sold for a whopping $107,100 by a mysterious European art collector. Jessica got $83,500 and Wright took $23,600.
Experts confirm that the bottle is part of the "Pennellate" series designed by Scarpa in the 1940s. Wright said it was impossible to determine exactly how many of those bottles were made.
Wright
He particularly highlighted the perfect state of preservation of the bottle.
"If there's a small flaw, even a small one, the bottle might sell for less than $10,000," he said. "It's like hitting the jackpot. ”
How could such a bottle end up in a second-hand store at Goodwill?
"It's almost impossible to find out who donated this bottle," said Laura Faison, a spokeswoman for Goodwill in Central and Coastal Virginia. They process more than two million donations a year, she said.
Experts at Wright's auction house initially estimated that the bottle would sell for $30,000 to $50,000. Although it was worth a lot of money, Jessica said she didn't plan to keep it.
"I get nervous just thinking about how rare this bottle is and how much it might be worth," she said. "When you have something so valuable, you worry, what if something happens?"
Jessica's mind is always conjured up with images of bottles being knocked over, someone breaking in, or a fire or natural disaster.
"I knew I was going to give it back to the art world. They didn't even know it was there," Jessica said. "I felt like I was saving it from being forgotten by the world. ”
Moreover, the bottle also saved her to some extent.
Jessica, whose profession trains horses for polo, bought an old farmhouse built in 1930 that was in need of major repairs and is currently heated by two heaters. With the money, she plans to upgrade the heating system, install a dishwasher, and add a fence.
She said that she grew up visiting second-hand stores with her mother, and over the years she has developed an eye for discovering treasures. She is also a big viewer of the Antiques Roadshow and loves to study her findings.
In the past, she had also bought bargains, such as Balinese wood carvings and Bert Grodel's lithographs, which she thought could be worth thousands of dollars.
But in her years of visiting second-hand stores, she never thought that a discovery would change her life, but Jessica says it's one of the joys of visiting a second-hand store.
"You never know what you're going to find," Jessica said. "That's the fun of treasure hunting. ”