Pinch yourself as this has happened leaving no space for your imagination to dance keeping your mind at unrest. Lately, a cracked jug got sold for £220,000 at an auction with its actual value even less than £200; thereby raising eyebrows of all the moguls of antique industry. If you dare to calculate, then the sales generated from this 19th-century vessel was 1,000 times more than its expected price. Something that started as a war finally got its proud bidder. One could sense that they were clashing for the box rather than the claret jug itself. What made it antique? It is marked with the name of Jean-Valentin Morel, which could be a reason as Morel was a famous 19th-century French goldsmith who spent the crucial years of his career in London. The jug-booklet pens down the auction as ‘a French claret jug, the rock gemstone body imprinted with animals, the silver gilt rise with enameled beautification, 19th century, 30cm. (Cracked and damaged). It is fitted in a box of Morel à Sevres.
Via Metro
Oh! what a pity that people write about things of which they know nothing. The jug imaged is not 19th century French, but Egyptian 10 – 11th century and an iconic rarity. A dispute arose after the sale and the auctioneer, vendor and purchaser made an agreement to rescind the sale. The jug was catalogued for what it was about 9 months later in London and sold for nearly £3,000,000! The mounts were not silver gilt, but gold – but that was not the reason for the added value; it was the 1000 year-old rock crystal body.