Palace's Chinese vases valued at €28m

Tucked away in a corner at the President's Palace, in Valletta two rare Chinese porcelain vases tell the story of a poor man who fell in love with a woman above his class.

Until last week, very little was known about the vases, not even their value. Nobody knows exactly how they found their way to the palace or how long they have been there but now, at least, the large, hand-painted vases have been dated back to the 17th century and have been estimated to be potentially worth over €28 million.They depict scenes from the Chinese legendary Romance of the Western Chamber.

Similar rare artefacts as the two vases, that form a set, are known to have been sold for about €14 million a vase in auction, Chinese porcelain expert Qin Dashu said.

After inspecting the artefacts, Prof. Qin shed light on the origin and age of the vases that have been at the palace for decades.

Prof. Qin, from the School of Archaeology and Museology at the Beijing University, visited the palace in Valletta where he was shown six vases, two of which are roughly a metre high.

The large vases and a set of smaller ones, he said, dated back to the 17th century while the other two were mid-18th century.

All vases were hand painted in blue paint over a white background mainly because the colour combination was popular at the time and because cobalt blue paint resulted in a crisp design when the porcelain was fired.

"There are many of these types of vases in Europe. However, it is very rare to see the large ones," Prof. Qin said.

The vases were recently conserved by Heritage Malta and are all in a good state apart from one of the smaller 18th century ones that might have been damaged during WWII, Heritage Malta conservator James Licari said.

Although Heritage Malta did not know exactly when the vases reached Malta, they suspect they may have been a gift to a grandmaster during the times of the knights or brought by the British to embellish the palace, he said.

After inspecting the vases, Prof. Qin called at to the Bighi restoration centre to see their lids.

There it was established that their dog-shaped knobs had been replaced.

The head of the original foo dog, a traditional Chinese guard dog, had been replaced during the time of the British with the head of a European-looking dog.

Curator Bernadine Scicluna added that, until Prof. Qin's valuation, there was little information about the vases and their lids.

Once they heard that Prof. Qin would be coming to Malta to give a lecture, they seized the opportunity and asked him to inspect the four vases at the palace.

Last Friday, Prof. Qin gave a talk at the National Museum of Archaeology in Republic Street, Valletta on the exquisite beauty and provenance of Chinese porcelain.