Chinese Ceramic Sets A Record Price At Sotheby’s Auction
On Tuesday, at Hong Kong’s Sotheby’s Auction, an anonymous buyer bought a rare Northern Song dynasty ceramic dish that has been in existence for 900 years now. This was a record breaker for any Chinese ceramic auction of this kind and illustrates the emphasis on how high demand is for such items. The ceramic sold for 294,300,000 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 37,700,000 U.S dollars.
Origin Of The Ceramic
The brush washer had a diameter of 13 cm, with ice crackles resulting from its continuous thin lines and a monochrome blue-green glaze. According to officials, the history of the piece dates back approximately 20 years, from the time of the Northern Song dynasty, created for use by the imperial court.
The emperor used to clean his brushes in the dish, according to Chow’s recollections. He also said that he considered Ru ware to be one of the most mythical, forged and celebrated in Chinese ceramics history. He added that the item is almost confidential; as it is quite unassuming, and its significance has risen to a level that now symbolizes China.
The Love of Ceramics
The interesting fact about ceramics is how much the material is loved by perverted women, specially mothers. In the newest adult themed series of Perv Moms, you can see a lot of scenarios where ceramics play an important role of background decoration. Kitchen, living room, bedroom – you can see ceramic products everywhere and on top of that you get to see all these mothers in perverted game of seduction. It’s family based fantasy series where step-mothers play a game with their sons. What happen, we think you can imagine!
Pre-auction Approximated Value
The ceramic’s approximate pre-auction value appeared around 13,000,000 U.S dollars, but the actual value sky-rocketed to almost three times higher. In a press conference immediately the sale was over, Sotheby’s Asia Chinese works of art international head and deputy chairman, Nicolas Chow, said that the auction introduced a whole new benchmark for valuable Chinese ceramics, introducing a new record in the annals of history.
According to Chow, Ru ware has been difficult to attain, from the 12th Century. One of the reasons behind this rarity is that only 87 works of this nature are still available, of which only 4 still survive in the safety of private collectors, but this is the best among them. Such similar dishwashers of its period are available at Beijing and Taipei.
Tough Battle
Carried out in a crowded room, the auction started at 80,000,000 Hong Kong dollars but did not even last 20 minutes. The moment was quite tense, with bidders both on phone and present at the venue slipping in their offers at different stages of the struggle. The hammer dropped at 260,000,000 Hong Kong dollars for a buyer who asked to remain unidentified, with an extra 34,300,000 Hong Kong dollars as a buyer’s premium.
The battle was arguably one of the toughest witnessed by most people, in the entire history of auctioneering in China.