AN ASTUTE purchase at a Perthshire country house sale has netted a local man a £50,000 windfall.

The rare piece of European glass which sold at Jordanstone House, near Alyth, for £17,000 in July last year has been resold for £70,000 at a London auction house less than a year later.

News of the quick profit for the man, understood to be a local dealer, spread through the antique trade like wildfire.

“Good luck to him—his research seems to have paid off,” said a Perth man involved in the antique business.

“He recognised the piece for what it was, lots of other people didn’t.”

The Venetian blown glass pigeon was designed by Ercole Barovier in 1929-30 and made at the same time by Vetraria Artisica.

An exceptionally rare piece, the bird is only one of four examples known to exist.

It was one of the lots at the sale of the contents of the former home of Lady Duncan, which netted almost £1 million last year.

The auction of everything from books, furniture and paintings to pots and pans was conducted by Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull.

The glass bird was initially given a pre-sale estimate of only a few hundred pounds and some surprise was expressed when bidding reached £17,000.

The doubters were presumably even more amazed when the item resurfaced last month at Christie’s South Kensington saleroom in London.

Carrying a pre-sale estimate of £25-£35,000, it eventually sold for £70,000.

A spokesman for Lyon and Turnbull said the bird was a rarity which seldom came on the market.

“The auction market is very fickle, you just need two people willing to go up to £70,000—it could have happened at Jordanstone,” said the spokesman. “Because of its rarity, it attracted international attention down in London.”