When it comes toart , antiques , and other collectable , condition is everything : Few will pay handsomely for a composition that come in pieces . But one recent vendue demonstrated an elision to the normal . A broken flush pot managed to fetch over $ 60,000 .
consort toThe Times , UK - base Chiswick Auctions fielded thesaleof a 4 - foot - tall ceramic pot that was found split into two pieces and missing a enceinte lump of its upper constituent . Acclaimed 20th - century ceramist Hans Copermade it on commissionfrom an admirer in 1964 . After the possessor accepted the delivery of the piece , it snap off . She then repurposed it as a planter in her backyard garden , where it was discovered after her passing .
Though the item was covered in sens , the woman ’s grandchildrennoticedit was adorned with deliberate design choices . Because they knew their grannie was an artistic production aggregator , they suspected it might be more than a flower pot .
They strive out to Chiswick , who greet it as the work of Coper . After estimating its economic value at up to $ 13,000 , it wound up selling for $ 63,250 .
“ The fact that you could sell a really damaged ceramic for that sort of damage goes to prove how collectable and highly view Hans Coper is , ” Chiswick head of design Maxine Winning toldThe Times .
The German - born Coper ( 1920 - 1981 ) fled to England during wartime toescapethe increase tautness . ( His Judaic father had taken his own life . ) England behave him to Canada , but he was able to retrovert and began apprenticeship in clayware and clay - throwing . He master the craft of grading clayware using snowy cadaver , so it looked ancient , sanding and applying materials that gave it a veneer of honest-to-goodness eld . He also privilege repeated design choices in his work , dubbing the shape testicle , efflorescence , and arrow . By 1958 , he had his own studio . His report develop throughout the twentieth 100 ; some of his complete works have betray for up to $ 900,000 .
The flower pot may require as much as $ 10,000 in renovation . Given Coper ’s popularity , it ’s likely to be money well spent .