Antiques Roadshow: Treasure hunters find rare ming dynasty item
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The staple BBC series saw an Australian detectorist venturing to the Eden Project in Cornwall with a very special item. He’d brought along a Buddha item that originated from the Ming Dynasty, making it hundreds of years old. Asian specialist Lee Young explained he felt “honoured” to be close to the item as he gave an impressive valuation estimate.
“We’re very fortunate on the Antiques Roadshow that we get to see some wonderful items and objects but occasionally an item comes our way that has an amazing story that makes it almost a world treasure,” Lee stated.
“And the story about this little Buddha and the journey that it’s made to get here today to me makes this an exceptional little object.”
The guest explained: “We come from a tiny fishing town in regional Western Australia, so we’ve come about as far as is possible to come to be here today.
“We were out metal detecting, and we spent about two weeks finding beer cans and eventually it turned up this.
“We think it’s a baby Buddha, but its origin and age, we’re just not sure.
“However, we’ve had four years to go down the rabbit burrow to learn about Buddha and learn about the history that could have got it on that journey to our shores.
“And in a nutshell, what we think is one of the largest treasure voyages to ever go around the world, sent out by a Chinese emperor around about the 1420s.
“Now, there’s no doubt he came down from southeast Asia, but there is doubt as to whether or not he arrived in Australia.
“If this is Ming Dynasty, if it is Chinese, then this could be a missing link to prove an amazing story about the world’s richest treasure voyage and that’s something I very much hope Buddha gives us the opportunity to do.”
“Let’s clear something up right away, yes it is Ming,” Lee confirmed to the relieved-looking guest.
He continued: “So that gives us a pretty broad brushstroke between 1368 and 1644.
“But the thought is it could be sort of 1420, so that would fit exactly into that.
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“And yes, it is the infant Buddha, he was brought out in ceremonies to celebrate Buddha’s birthday.”
The guest went on to explain its history would make the item the oldest Chinese artifact in Australian history.
Getting to the all-important valuation, Lee continued: “I think if that came up for auction, it is a Ming Dynasty piece, it would probably carry a pre-sale estimate of £3,000 to £5,000, something like that as an object without that story.
“But as you rightly say, this is, you know, historically incredibly important, and I can see people getting scooped up in this if it ever did come on the open market.
“If the hammer fell at £10,000, would we be surprised? No. If it fell at £50,000 would we be surprised? No.
“And I think even if it made £100,000, I wouldn’t be that surprised.
“I’m honoured to be as close to this as I am, it’s history-making, thank you.”
The guest became emotional when he talked about what he might do if the item went to the open market, explaining he had agreed to do something in his late friend’s memory.
Antiques Roadshow airs Sundays from 8pm on BBC One.
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