Written by Sana Noor Haq, CNNLondon
A rare 18th-century Chinese vase has sold at auction for nearly £1.5 million ($1.8 million).
The gilded blue artefact was originally valued at £150,000 ($186,000), according to Dreweatts, the English auction house that handled the sale.
The seller inherited the vase from his father, a surgeon, who bought it for a few hundred pounds in the 1980s, Dreweatts said in a statement. Unaware of its value, the seller kept it in the kitchen, where it was discovered by an expert.
The porcelain vase, measuring 60 cm in height, is decorated along its base with a six-character seal characteristic of the Qianlong era (1736-1795), according to the auction house. 
The silver cranes hold objects such as flower baskets associated with Taoism, a philosophy the Qianlong Emperor was a proponent. Credit: Courtesy of Dreweatts
It was made for the court of the Qianlong Emperor — the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty — and would have been made using innovative heating techniques to achieve its blue, gold, and silver hue, Dreweatts added.
The vase would have had to be fired at a temperature of nearly 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,200 degrees Celsius) to achieve the cobalt blue hue, while the inner turquoise tint and the outer gold and silver colors would have been made in a kiln suitable for enamels, said the auction house.
The Chinese name for this type of vase is “tianqiuping”, which translates to “Vase of the Heavenly Sphere” and describes its spherical shape. Dreweatts said no other Tianqiuping vases with the same designs in gold and silver have been documented, making them extremely rare.
The vase bears a distinctive six-character seal from the Qianlong era on its base. Photo credit: Courtesy of Dreweatts
Mark Newstead, a consultant for Asian ceramics and artworks at Dreweatts, said in the statement that bidding interest was coming from China, Hong Kong, the US and the UK.
“The result shows the high demand for the finest porcelain in the world. A fabulous result and we are honored to have sold this to Dreweatts,” he added.
A number of other rare artifacts recovered from the darkness have recently fetched high selling prices.
In March last year, a 15th-century blue and white Chinese bowl bought at a flea market for $35 fetched $721,800 at auction. A few months later, a 16th-century Italian dish discovered in a drawer fetched more than $1.7 million at auction — 10 times its original estimate.