The old adage that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure is a measure of perspective entirely dependent on one man’s ability to perceive “value” beyond the reach of another man. Another poorer, less-informed man. Such was the case last week when a cup (pictured), which looks to our eyes like something you’d use at an archaically furnished holiday home in the Blue Mountains to chop weed in (but was actually a 17th century Chinese “libation cup” carved from rhinoceros horn), sold at auction in Melbourne last week for somewhere in the vicinity of a luxury European sports car.
The cup was chanced upon by an unnamed antiques whisperer in Sydney who bought the op-shop find for just $4 before confirming its value with a Sotheby’s consultant and selling it via auction for $75,640.
The moral of the story? Send unsolicited images of every little piece of crap you own to auction consultants. You never know what they might find.
Via The Age
