Discovery: The Ming 'Dragon' jar used as an umbrella stand

‘The owner always thought this was an 18th-century jar, a decorative object,’ explains Marco Almeida, a specialist in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at Christie’s in London.
This magnificent and very rare large blue and white ‘Dragon’ jar was being used as an umbrella stand, when Almeida got in touch with the owner who agreed to send it to London to be inspected. ‘Once it arrived, we were absolutely speechless,’ the specialist recalls. ‘The more we studied it, the better it got.’ As the team of specialists looked at the jar, they realised they were handling an ‘incredibly important piece of Chinese porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.’
In this video, Chi Fan Tsang, a fellow specialist in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, discusses the details that make this piece so special, including the significance of the five-clawed dragon, and the cross mark on the base of the vessel.
‘It is an incredibly expensive umbrella stand,’ smiles Almeida. Indeed it was — this dragon jar sold for HK$158,040,000 / $20,447,642 in 30 Years: The Sale on 30 May in Hong Kong.
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