City semi held treasure worth £30k

A Staffordshire auctioneer has found a collection of rare and valuable treasures from the Orient worth thousands in a Wolverhampton home.

Adrian Rathbone, the chief valuer at Richard Winterton Auctioneers, based in Lichfield, was asked to visit a property in Wolverhampton to undertake what was initially deemed a routine visit to a deceased's estate.

Much to his delight, the semi-detached property was a treasure trove of works of art from China and Japan initially thought to be worth up to £30,000.

The front sitting room was packed with oriental ceramics on chests, tables, inside cabinets and antique Japanese woodblock prints covering the walls.

The real wow factor was when Mr Rathbone was shown into the back room where display cabinets were crammed with hundreds of antique ivory figures, netsukes, tsuba, inro, scent bottles, lacquer and more prints lay untouched.

The intricately carved ivory figures, called okimonos, and are all different showing natives in single and group form pursuing everyday activities such as collecting wood and crafts with most dating from the latter part of the 19th century.

A netsuke is a small toggle device for hanging on the cord of robes and inros are small boxes with divisions, usually made of lacquer, for containing trinkets or medicines.

Mr Rathbone said: "We've only just started going through the collection but we expect to see them go for between £15,000 and £30,000."

It emerged that the deceased owner had a passion for researching and collecting ivory and other oriental works of art at a time when such things were affordable.

Nowadays it is a different story with the East experiencing great growth in wealth and the market is booming for all things oriental.

Preparation has now begun for a special auction devoted to the to collection.

It will be held on October 19 at The Lichfield Auction Centre.