A pair of mid-19th century Cantonese porcelain vases, £13,500 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Fellows.
Estimated at £10,000-15,000 they were hammered down at £13,500 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Fellows’ Antiques, Fine Art & Collectables on March 3 in Birmingham.
The 51in (1m 29.5cm) tall vases, depicting figures and battle scenes, dragons and flaming pearls with gilt stylised dragon handles, had featured on Antiques Roadshow in the late 1980s/early 1990s and again in 2012.
Valuer David Battie
In 2012, at Birmingham University, Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce introduced the vases and explained that valuer David Battie had actually valued them some 20-25 years previously at £8000-10,000.
But Battie failed to recognise the pair, brought in by members of the same family, on his second occasion and valued them at £15,000-20,000 before Bruce reminded him that they should be rather familiar to him.
View the clip via the BBC Antiques Roadshow website.
