This broken, overgrown flower pot just sold for a staggering $66K — even its owner was shocked: ‘They are over the moon’
They hit the jack-pot.
A damaged flower pot that was abandoned in a UK garden fetched a staggering $66,000 at auction after it was identified as a forgotten work by an avant-garde 19th-century artist.
That’s one way to “grow” your earnings.
“The vendor didn’t expect the vessel to achieve its estimate, so they are over the moon,” Maxine Winning, head of design at Chiswick Auctions in London, where the opus went under the hammer, told Bournemouth News and Picture Service.
The stoneware masterpiece was created in 1964 by Hans Coper, a celebrated ceramicist who notably emigrated from Germany to the UK in 1939, the UK Times reported. Standing at a height of four feet, the piece was one of the tallest ceramics he’d ever made.
This opus was commissioned by an unnamed female client, who treasured the vessel and kept it for many years until it was tragically damaged.
But instead of discarding the pot, the woman roughly jigsawed the vessel together and then stored it in a garden at the back of her London home as an ornamental flower pot.
After the owner passed away, her grandchildren inherited the contents of her home, including the forgotten flower holder, which they recognized as an item of interest.
They subsequently contacted Chiswick for a general contents valuation, telling them to pay particular attention to the vessel.
Auction house expert Jo Loyd visited the property to find the makeshift vase — which was in “two separate parts” — sprouting plants and covered in snails.
“I went out and brought it inside,” the expert said. “From afar, you couldn’t tell what it was, especially as it was covered in weeds.”
However, despite being “crudely repaired” and missing part of its top, she noted that it was “quite distinctive in its style,” while the bottom portion still had Coper’s seal on it.
Due to its damaged condition, the auction house originally valued the item at between $7,900 and $13,233. However, the vase generated so much interest that it eventually sold for $48,310 to a U.S.-based bidder following a fierce bidding war between two others who were interested.
Factoring in fees, the overall price paid was over $66,000 — with Loyd noting that it would likely cost around $10,500 to restore it to its “former glory.”
Winning said that “everyone is thrilled” with the result, noting that the vendor didn’t expect the piece to fetch so much.
“The fact that you can sell a really damaged ceramic for that sort of price goes to prove how collectable and highly regarded Hans Coper is,” she gushed.
