A Chinese blue & white porcelain brush pot sells at auction for £51,000

A 17th Century Chinese brush pot found on a windowsill during a house clearance has been sold by a Perth auctioneers for £51,000, to see the hammer fall click here.

Lindsay Burns auctioneers found the antique during a house clearance in Bridge of Allan.

The owner, an elderly woman, recently died and Nick Burns, principle auctioneer and senior valuer, was one of those tasked with looking through the house and its many contents.

Nick, co-owner of the prominent King Street auction house, said the property was so full that he struggled to get into some of the rooms.

He said: “There was so much stuff in the house.

“Some of the rooms were filled with boxes and bags of stuff.

“Then when we started taking and removing things we found this tucked away on a window ledge in the utility room.

“It’s in very good condition with no major issues, bar one or two minor flaws.

“We think someone in the lady’s family was out in the far east around the 19th Century, and picked it up and brought it back.

“Then over the years, when family houses have amalgamated, it has ended up there.”

The Chinese blue and white porcelain brush pot, also known as a bitong, is believed to come from the mid-17th Century.

It is typically used to hold calligraphy pens and brushes.

The pot, from the Qing Dynasty, was sold on Wednesday as part of the auctioneers’ antique sale, which is seeing 850 lots being sold over three days.

The successful bidder was a man in China with people from across the UK, USA and France also getting involved.

Lindsay Burns, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in February, will take a percentage of the final sale as commission with the rest going to the family.

Nick said: “We had eight or nine phone lines open and it was very active online.

“When the sale started the bids quickly went up. They were increasing by £1,000 at a time.

“I knew it was going to make a good price.

“When I saw it get past £30,000 and then £40,000 I was thinking ‘where is this going to stop’.

“It sold for more than we expected.

“Members of the team were speaking to people on the phone, the computer screen was flashing with bids coming in and some people were in the room. There was a real buzz in the air.

“I was delighted to sell it. It’s not every month you sell these sorts of items. It’s always the unassuming ones.”

Nick said Lindsay Burns is now in the process of working with the buyer to get it shipped over to him.

Previous high value sales

It isn’t the first time such an expensive item has been sold by Lindsay Burns.

In 2011, Nick sold a blue and white Chinese vase for £55,000, his most expensive item.

Recent sales include Chinese porcelain saucer dishes for £10,500 and an Italian mosaic marble top table for £27,000.

To read the full article on The Courier click here

To read about the sale of the brush pot in the Antiques Trade Gazette, headline Chinese brush pot stars in our pick of five auction highlights sold this week, click here and to read another Antiques Trade Gazette story regarding the brush pot, headline Bidders on the alert to find Chinese sleepers, click here