A tiny vase bought for £2.50 from a charity shop in Surrey is expected to sell for up to £9,000 at auction.

A couple purchased the 10cm (4in) tall ornament after they spotted a small engraving etched on the bottom.

Specialists at Canterbury Auction Galleries in Kent have since identified it as the work of Namikawa Yasuyuki, one of Japan’s most famous artists from the Meiji Period.

Gallery co-director Cliona Kilroy said the item was “highly sought after”.

Sellers Karen and Ahmet, from Epsom, said they had no idea if the vase was genuine or a copy, nor its value.

“Ahmet is not an expert but he does have great taste and an instinct for the real thing,” Karen said.

“He came over and showed me the vase and I said something a bit dismissive like, ‘very pretty’. ‘No, look at the base,’ he said, and showed me the etched marks.”

After Canterbury Auction Galleries confirmed the vase as being by Yasuyuki, Karen said her partner was “all a-quiver”.

| CANTERBURY AUCTION GALLERIES: Specialists identified the vase as the work of Namikawa Yasuyuki, one of Japan’s most famous artists from the Meiji Period

The cloisonné vase will be auctioned online on July 29 - 30 with an estimated value of £7,000 to £9,000.

A larger vase by the same artist sold at the same auctioneers for £29,000 in April 2019.

Ms Kilroy said Yasuyuki was one of the most famous cloisonné artists of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries - the so-called Golden Age of enamelling in Japan.

“The beautiful work by Yasuyuki’s Kyoto studio is held in several collections and is highly sought-after,” she said.

“The exceptionally fine work and naturalistic depiction of cockerels and hens on a black background, with birds in flight overhead, was something of a trademark of his.”