Antiques Roadshow star wowed as £8 charity shop buy is worth eye-watering amount

13 August 2023 , 21:32

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Antiques Roadshow guest in shock after learning charity shop purchase is rare £10k vase (Image: BBC)

An Antiques Roadshow guest was gobsmacked after learning a vase he purchased at a charity shop for £8 is actually a Ming Dynasty vase worth £10,000.

Expert Lars Tharp shared the exciting news when the unsuspecting guest brought three items - a vase, a plate and a china bowl - in for a valuation. Every item was made from different time periods in China. The bowl, which was used as a brush washer, was from the Qing Dynasty and was purchased for £50.

Lars told the guest that it could be sold for around £3,000 at auction. "Now be careful, they are breakable," he told the delighted guest before moving on to the plate. "From the very plain to the very complicated. Tell me about that," he said as the guest revealed he "fell in love with it" when he saw it.

The guest purchased the plate for £400 and learned it could be worth up to £1,500. And finally, Lars turned his attention to the vase. 'This one is not alike, I just naturally found it from a charity shop," the guest told the expert. According to Lars, the item was actually two vases.

The guest was shocked about the true value of his £8 vase (BBC)

"And what's really special about this is the shape. This is one of the oldest shapes known to Chinese culture," he said. "This is an ancient shape. The question is, is it ancient? Let's just look at this base, shall we? These lumpy little brackets...these feet with that lovely orange tinge where the glaze meets the body, that to me, suggests that it is Ming Dynasty."

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"Ming? Really Ming? Oh my god," the guest couldn't believe what he was hearing and revealed he purchased the vase for £7.99 at a charity shop. "Ker-ching," Lars said. "I think if it goes through the various tests in my mind, a piece like that would probably fetch somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000."

The Ming Dynasty was between 1368–1644 while the Qing Dynasty ruled between 1644 and 1912. Earlier this week, Lars worked his magic and shocked guests by telling them a bowl they had 'lying around their house' for years was valued at a staggering £55,000.

BBC One viewers couldn't believe their ears when they heard antiques expert Lars Tharp share the true valuation of the Japanese decorative bowls which were adorned with hand-crafted paintings of dragons and other elements of Japanese culture. After examining the detail on the bowl, expert Lars soon delivered the good news to the pair as he estimated that the piece of Japanese crockery is worth a whopping £55,000 - much to the shock of the contributor who immediately gasped upon hearing the true value of the bowl which had been laying around his house for years.

Zara Woodcock