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Islamic vase sensation on auction

LONDON: A rare Islamic crystal jug mistaken earlier this year for a cheap French claret pitcher is expected to sell for millions of pounds at auction.

The 1,000-year-old rock crystal ewer — one of only seven of its kind known to exist — is the highlight of Christie’s October 7 sale of Islamic and Indian art, with an estimated price of at least £3 million.

Only in January the Lawrences auction house in southwest England had identified it as a 19th-century French claret jug and offered it for sale for £100 to £200. Some collectors sensed it was more special than that. After a bidding war, the jug sold for £220,000, more than 1,000 times the list price.

Christie’s said it has now been identified as “one of the rarest and most desirable works of art from the Islamic world.” The auction house said on Thursday the original sale had been annulled by agreement between the purchaser and the original owners, who wish to remain anonymous.

The slim-necked vessel, carved from a single piece of rock crystal and decorated with elaborate engravings of cheetahs, was made for the court of the Fatimid dynasty, which ruled a swath of West Asia and North Africa between 908 and 1187 A.D.

“If it’s genuine as they say it is, then it’s a tremendous discovery,” said Anna Contadini, an Islamic art expert at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. “There are lots of carved rock crystal items that are not genuine — either fakes or copies made at a certain point in the 19th and early 20th centuries. If it is genuine, it is priceless.”

Many artefacts from the era were lost when the Fatimid treasury was broken up by the Ayyubid rulers who succeeded them.

Only six similar rock crystal ewers are known to survive, including one in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and another in the Louvre in Paris.

Another, part of the Pitti Palace collection in Florence, was dropped and smashed by a museum staff member in 1998. — AP

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