Having bought it for £50 at a local Staffordshire antiques fair, he took it straight to Penkridge auction house Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) and consigned it to the September 12 sale.
Catalogued as ‘Oriental bronze type censer with six-character mark to base’, the 5½in (14cm) diameter item had some light scratches and oxidisation to the interior but, against a £100-200 estimate, sold at £1300.