BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833).Pic: Dukes/BNPS..Over the moon...flask...Stapled together...but still worth £120,000...A broken Chinese vase that was delivered by its elderly owner to an auction house in a battered cardboard box has sold for £120,000...The man, aged in his 80s, had inherited the 11 inch moonflask vase from a relative many years ago and had no idea of its worth...The top part had once broken off and had been very crudely stitched back together using large metal staples, a technique last used by ceramic specialists in the 1960s...Although experts suspected the piece dated back to Imperiel China, the ugly 11ins-long scar led to them to put a 2,000 pounds pre-sale estimate on it...But scores of Chinese collectors lined up to bid on the blue and white vase when it came up for auction, reaffirming the belief the piece dated back to the 15th century...It was finally bought for 119,500 pounds. Had it not had the hefty crack running through it, it is likely the Ming vase would have fetched one million pounds..