An Antiques Roadshow guest was left in emotional tears when she was told her faulty vase was worth as much as £50,000.

The woman explained on the BBC programme that the blue and white porcelain vase has been in her family for decades and it was passed on to her when her parents passed away.

Speaking at Christchurch Park Mansion in Ipswich, oriental ceramic expert Alexandra Aguilar Doméracki believed the furniture was a Middle Eastern-inspired Chinese vase due to its shape.

The shape was commonly used as medicine containers, known as Baoyaoping, back in the Ming dynasty around 1600s.

She explained: "If we look at the pattern itself, at the dragon, so you have the wonderful, ferocious-looking, confronting dragon, at the front here, with these five claws, and floating above this sacred pearl of wisdom here.

"You have another dragon here emerging from these crashing waves and rocks underneath.

"They are floating above these wisps of fire and these curiously-shaped of clouds. They are actually shaped as a Chinese mushroom called Linzhi, which represents longevity."

But when the expert lifted up the porcelain vase, it revealed a big crack at the base, which Alexandra pointed out was a manufacturing fault during the firing of the vase.

Due to its iconic "qinglong" (blue dragon) pattern, she believed the vase was made between 1735 and 1796.

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But she added: "There is something missing in this vase, and there's a bit of a clue when you look at the bats here.

"They don't have any shading, it's just the outlines of the bats. That's because they probably would have been painted at a later stage with colours."

There is also other tell-tale signs showing the vase was a rejected goods including the crack and a few stains and dots on the side.

But when it came to valuation, the expert said the vase was still a rare item in the market.

She said: "At auction, it could probably be worth £30,000 to £50,000."

The stunned guest replied: "Oh! That's still shockingly surprised. I thought you were going to say £30 to £50!

"I am nearly speechless. You know, if you'd said it was over £1,000, I would have been thrilled."

Alexandra apologised for the shock and said: "I'm sorry I didn't want to make you cry."

She then revealed that the vase could fetch as much as £4million if it had been painted with over-glazed enamel.

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