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文章1
A “dusty old cup” found in a university cabinet has sold for £3m after it was found to be a rare piece from the Chinese Ming dynasty.
The cup, thought to have been made for an emperor in 1425, was among a collection of antiques discovered by chance at Staffordshire University.
Valued at £2m, an unknown buyer paid £3.17m at auction in Hong Kong.
Professor Flavia Swann said she was “delighted” at the sale and the money will fund a national ceramics centre.
More on the Ming cup and Staffordshire news
Little is known about the collector of the rare Chinese artefacts other than his name was Ernest Thornhill and he was a chemist in London.
He donated his collection of more than 270 pieces to protect them from being bombed during World War Two.
15th Century Chinese artefacts AUCTIONEERS LYON & TURNBULL
The collection was donated to Staffordshire University during World War Two
Prof Swann said the antiques had been discovered in the 1970s after a chance conversation with the head of the Ceramic Technology Department.
It was after they said: “I’ve got some dusty old pots cluttering up my corridor, would you like to have a look?”
The pots, including the cup, were put into storage at the university. The cup only emerged again last year, when it was revalued.
The remaining collection is stored at a secret location in the West Midlands.
A RARE Ming cup bequeathed to Staffordshire University has fetched more than £3 million at auction.
The Stem Cup, which dates back to 1425 – 1435 and bears the six-character mark of the Emperor of China, Xuande, sold for £3.6 million at auction in Hong Kong.
The cup was part of a collection of oriental ceramics donated to the University by London Chemist Ernest Thornhill in the 1940s to prevent damage from the Blitz in World War II.
Auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull were appointed to sell the Stem Cup when the collection was rediscovered in 2013 after being hidden away in storage for a significant number of years.
Proceeds from the sale will fund a purpose built centre for ceramics at the University’s Stoke-on-Trent campus which will house the remainder of the 270 piece collection.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Rosy Crehan said: “We are delighted that the sale of the Stem Cup enables the University to do justice to the legacy of Ernest Thornhill who wanted his collection of oriental ceramics to be used as a study resource.
“We will now press ahead with plans to create a new Centre of Excellence in Ceramics, to house the historically significant Thornhill Collection, as well as providing teaching and research facilities to support the development of the ceramics sector in Stoke-on-Trent, the world capital of ceramics. This is an exciting prospect for students, businesses and the wider community.”
文章2
A 600-YEAR-OLD cup put up for sale by Staffordshire University today fetched more than £3 million at auction.
The blue and white Ming ornament – which bears the mark of the Emperor of China, Xuande – had been hidden away in storage for decades.
But the university decided to auction it off to help fund a special exhibition space for 269 other oriental art pieces from the same collection.
The inside of the cup.
The new display space will be part of wider plans to create a national centre of ceramic excellence at the university’s Stoke campus.
The so-called Stem Cup had previously been owned by London collector Ernest Thornhill.
He gave it to then North Staffordshire Technical College in 1944, along with the other pieces from the collection.
The earliest pieces belong to the Shang (1700 to 1028 BC) and Zhou (1027 to 221 BC) dynasties.
The cup itself is thought to have been made in 1425.
It went under the hammer in Hong Kong today.
The base of the cup.
Auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull had expected it to sell for £2 million, but bids went significantly higher.
They described the object as “a highly-important blue and white dragon stem cup, the sides finely painted in dark blue tones with two five-clawed dragons chasing the eternal flaming pearl amongst clouds, above a sea with crashing waves tipped in white, with rocks around the base, the interior painted with the six-character reign mark within double lines and circled by double rings repeated on the inside and outside rim, and on the foot.”
Details of the new owner have not yet been revealed.
Tweeting her reaction, vice-chancellor Liz Barnes said: “Fantastic news for Staffordshire University’s ceramics future. Stem cup sold for just over £3 million!”
