Chinese art collectors scramble to buy battered pot from Bristol charity shop
A badly damaged pot donated to a charity shop has thrilled the art world after it sold for £360,000.
4:04PM BST 27 May 2012
The Chinese bamboo brushpot was taken to the shop in a carrier bag along with household bric-a-brac, but staff spotted that it might be of some value.
It turned out to have been made between 1662 and 1722 by one of the most celebrated artists of the day, Gu Jue.
The shop raises money for the St Peter's Hospice in Bristol and average turnover of each of the charity's 47 outlets is £138,000. It means that the one donation has generated the same income as nearly three years' trading in one shop.
Despite the bamboo being extensively cracked and the base and rim having been crudely repaired with glue, the item excited the Chinese market.
There was furious bidding at Woolley and Wallis saleroom in Salisbury, Wilts, which oversaw the sale.
There are only two or three people in the world who have the skill to restore the carved pot. It is thought to depict the "Agreeable Life in a Land of Transcendents", a poem, and shows the philosopher Laozi on his ox, sitting amidst 12 figures in various pursuits in a mountainous landscape beneath pine trees and beside a flowing river. The new owner is from Hong Kong.
After the pot was handed in to the shop staff took it to the local Clevedon Salerooms, where Marc Burridge realised its potential.
He took it to John Axford, a world-renowned expert in Chinese objects, from Woolley and Wallis.
Mr Axford said: "The pot was extensively damaged and the wood had dried and cracked and there was nasty glue stuck to it.
"Luckily its potential was spotted and it is an incredibly rare thing made by one of the most sought after bamboo artists of the 17th century.
"Scholars in China at the time had a range of accoutrements and the creation of those became an art in itself.
"This would have been used to hold calligraphy brushes and was carved using specialist knives.
"It is signed with the mark of Gu Jue, followed by the seal Zong Yu, which is probably a studio mark.
"There was real international interest in the pot and all our phone lines were booked.
Janet Loud, St Peter's Hospice Head of Shops, said she was "shocked but delighted" by the find.
"The amount raised enables us to launch fatigue and breathlessness management courses for patients in Bristol and South Gloucestershire in outreach centres, helping those with life-threatening illnesses in the community."
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