![](data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1" height="2133px" width="3200px"></svg>)
How Two Stunning Wucai ‘Fish Jars’ Achieved £9.6M at Auction
The pair of rare porcelain treasures from China’s Ming Dynasty reached nine times their high estimate.
O n 6 November, a pair of exceptionally rare, 16th-century Ming dynasty Chinese wucai “fish jars,” originally commissioned by the Jiajing Emperor, sold at auction for £9.6 million ($12.5 million) at Sotheby’s London – over nine times their high estimate. The only complete pair of such vases ever to have appeared at auction, the result makes them the highest-priced Chinese works of art sold at auction worldwide in 2024.
Collectors were determined to go the distance for the historic vases, as evidenced by the tense pace in the sale room, online and phones, throughout a 20-minute bidding battle. A solid core of bidders held the course as the lot passed its £1 million estimate and then beyond the £5 million mark, a steady flow of bids fueling the sale to its climax at £9.6 million. Auctioneers also acknowledged around twice as many bidders as anticipated.
At the heart of the excitement was the first-ever auction appearance of a complete pair of 16th-century Ming wucai (“five enamel”) fish jars, with covers. Experts estimate there being 41 known similar extant examples of Ming vases, mostly without covers. One set with covers, somewhat damaged, is held in the Musée Guimet in Paris. Three other single jars with covers are in private hands.
These vases have been owned privately for generations. They are visible in a 1926 photograph of the “Ladies Room” (Damenzimmer) of a grand family house in Wiesbaden, Germany. There they stayed, before being moved off-site to safety during World War II, and again following the death of the last owner.
According to Henry Howard-Sneyd, Chairman of Asian Art, Europe and Americas, the vases’ very existence is a precious and rare link to that famous era of porcelain production. “If you wanted only three pieces to represent the Ming Dynasty in porcelain – the only period at which pure porcelain was discoverable in China – you would buy an early 15th-century piece of blue-and-white porcelain, a Chenghua ‘chicken cup’ and a Jiajing Wucai ‘fish jar.’ These are one of the icons of Chinese porcelain production.”
