The collective secondary market value of most of the lot of modern transfer printed wares was perhaps £10. The ‘Japanese geisha’ plates that accompanied them were valued closer to £10,000.
Wares by artists associated with the Eight Friends of Zhushan school remain a great strength of the Chinese porcelain market. These were decorated in famille rose enamels with immortals in a celestial and terrestrial settings within blue and black patterned borders in the manner of Xiaoyu Deng (1920-2000).
Any hopes of buying them for a song were dashed when they were pursued by a European bidder to £8500.
The sale took place on June 27.