A vase used as a lamp stand by a former United States ambassador yesterday fetched a world record for Qing-dynasty porcelain - $41.5 million - at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong.
For almost 100 years, the famille rose peach vase from the Yongzheng period (1723-1735) was passed down Ogden Reid's family, spending the past 33 years on a table in his New York home stuffed with sand and newspaper with a light bulb in its mouth.
Mr Reid, US ambassador to Israel from 1959 to 1961, knew the vase might be valuable but was unsure how much it would fetch.
'Our house was filled with dogs and children but fortunately nothing happened to the lamp,' Mr Reid said.
'I just didn't think about it. I was busy - involved in politics, campaigning for civil rights and as editor [for the New York Herald Tribune from 1953 to 1959].'
His grandfather, Whitelaw Reid, a founder of the Republican Party, acquired the vase in London while serving as ambassador to the Court of St James from 1905 to 1912. 'I have no idea how much he paid for it or where he got it from, but he had a number of marvellous artistic acquisitions and they were passed on to my mother,' Mr Reid said.