A WOMAN who bought two vases at a car boot sale for less than £10 is now selling them for 110 times the price she paid.
Bargain hunter Christine Rehm saw the unusual glass vases at an event while she was living in Alicante, Spain, five years ago.
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The 65-year-old didn’t think they were anything special at the time, paying €8 (£7) for them and putting them on her mantlepiece.
When she and her husband Manfred, 69, moved back to the UK in 2021 she decided to get them valued in case they might be valuable.
An antiques expert told her the vases were original Loetz, an Art Nouveau glass designer in pre-war Bohemia, and they could be worth as much at £1,200 at auction.
The glass vases are now going under the hammer with a starting price of £800, more than 110 times the price Christine paid.
Christine said: “I didn’t know they were valuable or what they were when I bought them.
“I just liked the style and particularly their colour.
“The seller had marked them up for €10 but said I could have them for €8 as that’s what he’d decided to let them go for.
“We’ve looked after them and kept them behind glass but I’m redoing the lounge and thought I’d see if they were worth anything.
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“I couldn’t believe it when I found out what they were. I’m very glad we brought the vases back with us.”
The vases, which are 13cm high have trefoil-shaped upper rims and date from Loetz’s Phaenomen Genre.
Known as PG29, the date to around 1900 when Loetiz art glass was seen to be at its “pinnacle of greatness”.
Top Tips to find a bargain at a car boot sale
SAVE AND SELL: Boot sale pro Ellie Macsymons, from netvouchercodes.co.uk, is a dab hand at finding bargains.
She said: “It’s best to walk into a car boot not just thinking about the now, but also about what could be worth the money in the future.”
Research platforms such as eBay and Depop where you can sell things when you’ve enjoyed them and see what prices you can expect.
GAME ON: Video games sell well on online marketplaces, with the best fetching up to £100.
Ellie said: “If there’s a game that’s not available in retail stores and hard to secure online, grab it at the lowest price possible.
“A nostalgia fan will buy it eventually once you resell it.”
Good-quality, unmodified collectable action figures and memorabilia, such as Star Wars treasures, are also a good bet.
LABELS TO LOVE: Designer items can net a pretty profit on resale.
Ellie said: “Jackets and bags could be worth hundreds or potentially thousands especially if they still have the tags on.”
A simple pair of jeans could be a wise buy. Grab a pair for yourself for peanuts or resell a label such as Levi’s.
PAINT JOB: Boot sales are brilliant for picking up furniture such as chairs and coffee tables.
Ellie said: “Buy them as cheaply as possible with a plan in mind.
“They can fetch lots of money when resold if they have a fresh coat of paint.”
STEER CLEAR: Some car boot buys can lead you down a dead end.
Ellie says it is best to avoid second-hand sofas, which may be stained or broken.
Headphones are another no-no as they often turn out to need a pricey repair.
Beware of perfumes being sold at car boot sales, as they may be fakes.
Also avoid mystery bags — known as lucky dips — as they are more often than not just full of junk.
Sarah Williams, senior valuer at Richard Winterton Auctioneers, said: “This was during the Art Nouveau period and is the period of manufacture that is most prized by collectors today.
“The Phaenomen Genre’s main characteristic is the rippled or feathered design on the surface of the object.
“This was achieved by wrapping hot glass threads around a molten glass base and then the threads were pulled on the surface to create the designs whilst all the materials were still malleable. The technique was patented in 1898.”
Loetz went on to make some of the world’s most iconic examples of Art Nouveau.
The factory managed to survive World War 1 as well as the Great Depression in the 1930s as well as three factory fires but eventually closed in 1947.
Sarah added: “Several other glass manufacturers are also synonymous with the Art Nouveau, a style in the decorative arts that covered the 1890s to the start of the First World War. These include Tiffany, Gallé, Daum and Lalique.
“Glass lent itself well to the sinuous and naturalistic forms that the style was inspired by and suited the iridescent glass well, especially when combined with metalwork including silver, silver plate, bronze, and pewter.”
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