A pair of Chinese jars which were bought for £20 in a charity shop are now tipped to sell for a whopping £50,000.
The eagle-eyed vendor, a young professional who collects ceramics, spotted the doucai porcelain at a London charity shop.
He bought them as he liked the way they looked but did not realise their potential value.
It was only when he showed the jars to his local auctioneers that he learned they were made in the Qing dynasty Imperial kilns in the 18th century.
The 4.5ins high lotus and chrysanthemum jars are finely painted in underglaze blue and enamelled in red, yellow and green.
They have roundels of flower heads interspersed with leafy lotus meanders, and crucially display the Qianlong six character seal mark.
The vendor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has agreed to give a 'significant' portion of the proceeds of the sale to the undisclosed charity.
The sale is being conducted by auctioneers Roseberys, of West Norwood, south London.
If they achieve their estimate, the jars will fetch 2,500 times what the vendor paid for them.
Bill Forrest, auctioneer at Roseberys, said: "Whenever I read a similar story, my first reaction is sadness at the charity missing out.
"But in this instance the vendor, a London young professional, was not aware of the jars' worth.
"He is someone who is passionate about ceramics and showed me photos of glass cupboards in his home full of them.
"He was drawn to the jars as decorative pieces.
"When I told him what they are worth he said he would give a significant portion of the sale proceeds to the charity, which is really nice to hear.
"Charity shop workers do great work but they are not specialists and they get given such an enormous quantity of items they can't thoroughly investigate them all.
"I suppose this shows the value of specialists.
"These jars have the six-character seal mark but there are so many fakes out there you have to do more diligence.
"However, when you have studied Imperial porcelain it exudes an indescribable power, and this example from the 18th century is when Chinese porcelain was at its zenith.
"The craftsmanship is unmistakable and this led me to believe that they are of the period that the mark suggests."
The sale takes place tomorrow.
