Have you ever dreamed of finding a valuable antique at a garage sale? 

That is exactly what happened recently to a Connecticut man who spent a mere $35 on a piece of china that could be worth upwards of $500,000!

The small porcelain bowl turned out to be a rare, 15th-century Chinese artifact worth between $300,000 and $500,000, according to famed auction house Sotheby’s.

The white bowl adorned with cobalt blue paintings of flowers, and other designs is about 6 inches in diameter. An antiques enthusiast came across the piece and thought it could be something special when browsing a yard sale in the New Haven area last year, according to Sotheby’s. The bowl, one of only seven such bowls known to exist in the world, will be up for auction in New York on March 17 as part of Sotheby’s Auction of Important Chinese Art.

The buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, paid the $35 asking price and later emailed information and photos to Sotheby’s asking for an evaluation. The auction house’s experts on Chinese ceramics and art, Angela McAteer and Hang Yin get many such emails every week, but this one was as rare and unique as the piece in the photo.

“It was immediately apparent to both of us that we were looking at something really very, very special,” said McAteer, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of its Chinese Works of Art Department. “The style of painting, the shape of the bowl, even just the color of the blue is quite characteristic of that early, early 15th century period of porcelain.”

Once they were able to see the actual bowl for themselves, the two experts confirmed that the precious piece bowl was from the 1400s. There are no scientific tests, only the trained eyes and hands of specialists like McAteer and Yin. The bowl was very smooth to the touch, its glaze was silky, and the color and designs are distinctive of the period.

“All the characteristics and hallmarks are there that identify it as a product of the early Ming period,” McAteer said.

According to the Associated Press, McAteer and Yin determined the bowl dates back to the early 1400s during the reign of the Yongle emperor, the third ruler of the Ming Dynasty, and was made for the Yongle court. The Yongle court was known to have ushered in a new style to the porcelain kilns in the city of Jingdezhen, and the bowl is a quintessential Yongle product, according to Sotheby’s.

McAteer said only six other such bowls are known to exist, and most of them are in museums. No others are in the United States. There are two at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, two at museums in London, and one at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, according to Sotheby’s.

How the bowl ended up at a Connecticut yard sale remains a mystery. McAteer said it’s possible it was passed down through generations of the same family who did not know how unique it was.

“It’s always quite astounding to think that it kind of still happens, that these treasures can be discovered,” McAteer said. “It’s always really exciting for us as specialists when something we didn’t even know existed here appears seemingly out of nowhere.”

Have you or anyone you know ever found a treasure at a garage sale? Please reply using the comments below!