A WOMAN who bought a vase in a charity shop for £8 to decorate her mum’s toilet has now sold it for £5,000.
Mary Lawler, 23, picked up the green vase on a shopping trip around Leigh-on-Sea in Essex.
The 10-inch tall vase spent some time in her mum Amy’s downstairs toilet – before being used as a doorstop on her porch.
But Mary took the vase to an auctioneer after a similar-looking one was valued at £10,000 on BBC Antiques Roadshow.
She learned that it was actually a Ming dynasty relic from medieval China – with a distinctive “celadon” double green finish.
Now Lockdales Auctioneers in Ipswich, Suffolk have sold the vase for £3,400 – with fees taking the final figure paid by a UK private collector to £4,195.
Mary will spend the proceeds from the sale on repairing her Volkswagen Golf.
Her mum Amy Lawler, 49, said: “We were decorating the downstairs toilet about three years ago in a 1970s style.
“My daughter went around some charity shops to find something to put in it.
“She sent me a picture of the vase and I said yes so she paid £8.50 for it and brought it home. We had only planned to spend a fiver.
“We put it in our downstairs toilet and after a while moved it to the porch to be used as a doorstop.
“When we saw the vase that appeared on the Antiques Roadshow we thought ‘that is exactly like ours’.
“We took it into the auctioneers and it is both shocking and exciting to learn how much it is worth.
“We are really pleased with the result and Mary can do up her car now.”
Auctioneer Chris Elmy said: “It was a privilege to work with this rare piece of ceramic art.
“The design of the vase is very intricate being a ‘vase within a vase’ with lattice-work sides – and would have been the work of an expert potter.
“It is not something you see every day in the average charity shop.”
It comes after a man who found a rare ring in a muddy field while out on a walk sold it for £23,000.
Another man is selling a garden feature for £3,000– after picking it up for just £20.