Hanging in home for years, family’s rare Delftware plates sell for $25,000 at Auction
A story that started on Antiques Roadshow 11 years ago finally ends with two treasured Delftware plates proving their worth at auction.
A family in Devon, England, brought two treasured plates to BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow in 2014, where the plates were determined to be, in the words of the show’s ceramic expert John Sandon, “rare as you can get.” Now, over a decade later, the assessment has been translated to a value: the two plates sold for a total of £20,160 (about $25,200) at auction.
The plates, which the owner said, according to BBC News, “had been hanging in the hallway of her husband’s family home for years,” are Delftware from the 17th century. They were made in Brislington, Bristol, England. Delft, named after the city in the Netherlands, where it was first made in the early 1600s, is a type of tin-glazed pottery like majolica or faience. It quickly spread across Europe and was made in England by 1610.
The two plates were sold at Wooley & Wallis, an auction house in Salisbury, England, at their Fine Pottery and Porcelain auction on February 5. The auction featured rare British ceramics from private collections, including Staffordshire figures, Pratt ware, Toby jugs, Spode porcelain, Bilston enamel, and more.
The two Delftware plates sold as separate lots were among the auction’s highlights. Both were octagonal with molded rims and decorated with blue and yellow. One had a Chinese-inspired scene with a figure in a landscape, reflecting the influence of Chinese porcelain on early Delftware. It sold for £7,560 ($9,450). The other plate had a portrait of King James II. Royal portraits were another favorite subject for English Delft. The plate’s rarity and historical value brought it to £12,600 ($15,750) despite being broken in half.
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