Woman paid £1 for vase, used it as plant pot; it later sold for £32,450

In 2008, a woman bought a glass vase for just £1 at a car-boot sale in Dumfries, Scotland, because she liked how it looked. She used it as a plant pot without knowing that it was a rare piece by French glass designer René Lalique.

Later that year, the vase was identified as a valuable 1929 Lalique creation and sold at Christie’s auction house in London for £32,450. As reported by The Guardian in June 2009, the sale was an example of how an ordinary second-hand purchase can turn out to be worth far more than its original price.

A £1 vase used for a plant

The woman bought the vase at a car-boot sale in Dumfries and initially used it for a plant. She did not realise its value when she brought it home.

According to a report from the Daily Mirror, the owner recalled: “We were clearing out the loft and it's been in there. We bought it for the plant because it looked nice in the bowl and we paid a pound.” The vase was later brought to the BBC programme ‘Antiques Roadshow,’ where experts identified it as a work by René Lalique, the French designer known for his glassware and jewellery.

The vase was valued at £25,000 on the programme, according to the same report.

Its eventual auction price was even higher.

What made the vase valuable?

The vase was identified as a 1929 ‘Feuilles Fougères’ piece by Lalique. Its name refers to fern leaves, a motif associated with the design. According to auction records, the object was a cire perdue vase with green staining, bearing a wheel-engraved Lalique mark. It stood approximately 12.5 cm high. The vase was sold at Christie’s in South Kensington, London, on November 12, 2008.

Auction records list the final price at £32,450, against an estimate of £20,000-£30,000.

The story attracted attention because the owner had bought the vase for its appearance rather than its designer or potential resale value. The Guardian mentioned the sale in a June 2009 article on running a car-boot stall, while the Evening Standard revisited it in 2015 in a guide to finding valuable second-hand goods.