Jug Bought on eBay For $200 ~ Sells At Bonhams London For $87,817

Saturday, 16 September 2006 07:57

London... John Sandon, Bonhams Director of British and European Ceramics, was a happy man today having sold a important circa 1752 Worcester ‘Wigonia’ creamboat for $87,817 at his sale of Fine British Pottery and Porcelain at the auctioneer’s salesrooms in London.

The smile was because two of his clients acquired the jug on eBay for just $200.  Thinking they might have something special, they emailed a picture of the jug to Mr. Sandon to ask his opinion.  He was able to confirm that they had just bought something very special indeed -- in fact, the only one of its kind in existence.  This view was more than borne out at the Bonhams auction in Bond Street which saw the pretty creamboat turn into something of a dreamboat for its savvy former owners.

After a tussle between two private collectors, the creamboat, estimated to sell for £15,000 to £20,000, was knocked down for a total with premiums of £46,800 [conversion to US dollars at $87,817].  The small jug is just 11.4cm long and 6.5cm high.

Known as Wigornia Creamboats after the Roman name for the city of Worcester, they are amongst the very first pieces made by the famous Worcester porcelain factory.  John Sandon comments: “They are truly the Holy Grail for Worcester collecting, so when I heard it had been bought on eBay for a song -- wrongly described online as Italian, I was astonished.  Few serious collectors look for early Worcester on eBay and this one slipped through – fantastic news for one lucky websurfer and good news for Bonhams too.”

The creamboat, Lot 133 in the sale, is crisply molded and brightly enameled, inspired by early English silver.  It is embossed on both sides with varied Chinese scenes.  On one side is a standing figure pointing towards a distant pavilion while an attendant holds an umbrella, the scene flanked by another pavilion with a pagoda roof and a hut on top of towering rocks.  The reverse image shows a trellis fence heightened with painted scrollwork issuing from further towering rocks with a pavilion behind and descending towards a tree, the reliefs picked out in brilliant enamels, the interior painted with a border of flowering plants, a single sprig inside the centre and a fancy insect in the lip.

Only one similar cream jug was previously offered and sold at auction by specialist John Sandon, that example crossing the block in 1987, but that was not colored.

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques.  The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK.  In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies.  Today, Bonhams is the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world with a global network of offices and regional representatives providing sales advice and valuation services in 20 countries.

Visit at: www.bonhams.com