Consigned as one of 97 additional Chinese and Korean lots from Tokyo's Toguri Museum of Art collection, opinion was divided amongst Sotheby's specialists as to whether its Imperial Jiajing (1522-1566) reign mark was genuine or an imitation and it was left to the market to decide.
In the belief it was a Ming dynasty pedigree and despite a drill hole to its base, a tsunami of Asian dealers contested it to £180,000, when it sold to a Hong Kong dealer.
The wucai jardinière was not the only sleeper snapped up by the Hong Kong trade. Also of note was a blue and white Qianlong mark and period bottle vase painted with a stylised lotus scroll and consigned by an English dealer with a speculative £800-1200 estimate. In good condition and catalogued as Qianlong mark but left undated, the 9in (23cm) vase was contested to an equally strong £60,000 - far exceeding the £30,000 Sotheby's specialist Michaela Coulthard thought it might possibly have fetched if right.
Sleeper at Sotheby's June 10 sale
THIS wucai dragon jardinière, third right, entered together with three routine pieces of 17th and 18th century Chinese blue and white (pictured with it), with pre-sale hopes of £900-1300, proved a sleeper and was the focus of an intense bidding battle between Hong Kong, Taiwanese and mainland Chinese dealers at Sotheby’s Olympia’s 387-lot outing on June 10.