An ancient Chinese jade dog, which was purchased for just £1 at a car boot sale, could fetch up to £10,000 at auction.
Crafted from mottled black and green stone, the 8.5cm long animal was carved resting in a recumbent position, featuring its head turned backwards and its tail and legs curled up.
The item is estimated to originate from the early years of the Ming dynasty, made approximately between 1380 and 1420.
Auctioneer Charles Hanson said the dog, acquired at a car boot sale only two months ago, has a “magical history”.
It is set to go on sale at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, on Wednesday.
Mr Hanson said: “We always think we need to be at a car boot sale really early – six in the morning ‘wakey, wakey’.
“But one of our clients went to a car boot sale very late, getting towards midday, and left on a stall, in a box, was this fairly unassuming chap behind me.
“What we’ve got is what we might call an archaic seated recumbent dog in black and green jade. But it’s Chinese and it’s a really important late Song, early Ming.
“We believe this little dog to be probably late 14th, early 15th century and there’s many ways we’ve been able to confirm that.”
He added: “It’s an important Chinese jade and being picked up for £1 only about two months ago, we expect it ought to realise up to £10,000.
“The vendor had an idea it was jade. It’s the rarer jade in this green and black. Furthermore to that, the vendor had an inclination it might be old.
“It still shows what can be lost and found, and the art of uncovering treasure around the United Kingdom.”
Mr Hanson said jade was a “mystical, magical substance” in Chinese society and was believed to bring good fortune.
He said: “There is some scratching, but (it has) the condition of something, which if you imagine was made probably at our time of the Black Death, was made 200 years or 150 years before Henry VIII came on the throne.
“This dog has a magical history from China and it’s revered by the Chinese today who, as back then, adore jade and collect these hard stone animals.”
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