One man’s trash is another man’s $2.2 million “Ding” bowl.
A bowl that was bought at a garage sale for less than $3 was recently sold for $2.2 million at a Southeby’s auction.
Why? Well it turns out that the bowl wasn’t just a useless piece of junk. Nope, it was a 1,000 year old Chinese bowl from the Northern Song Dynasty.
The bowl was purchased by an anonymous New York family in 2007 and was put for auction by Sotheby’s. The auction house estimated that the bowl would sell for about $250,000. Needless to say, the “ding” bowl slightly exceeded their expectations.
Sotheby’s, which called the bowl “rare and important,” said that there is only one other bowl of the sme size, form and decoration known in existence. That bowl is currently at the British Museum in London.
Sotheby’s describes the bowl, writing : “Finely potted body of slightly rounded and steep flared form rising from a short spreading foot to an upright rim, deftly carved to the interior with scrolling leafy lotus sprays, the exterior carved and molded with three rows of overlapping upright leaves, applied overall with an even ivory-colored glaze with characteristic teardrops at the base, the rim of the bowl and the footrim left unglazed showing the fine compact body beneath.”
Here are some photos of the Ding Bowl.
The International Business Times reports that the garage sale find fetched the highest price at the auction but it wasn’t the only Ding bowl on the auction block. A similar bowl, but a little larger in size, sold for over $500,000. A small ding bowl sold for $30,00.