300-year-old Chinese shopping list found in vase

LONDON (AFP) - A shopping list written around 300 years ago has been discovered in an 18th-century Chinese vase in Britain, the cleaner who found it said Thursday.

The Chinese list was discovered inside a vase at Fairfax House in York, northern England.

The house, which claims to be the finest Georgian townhouse in England and boasts a wealth of 18th-century furniture, is closed to the public every January for cleaning.

The vase has been in Fairfax House since it first opened nearly 25 years ago.

"In recent years, due to its fragile state, the vase has been kept in the store room," said Peter Musgrove, who coordinates the cleaning programme.

"I took it out to clean and heard a rattling in the bottom of the vase. I gently poked a stick inside and drew up a crumpled up piece of rice paper with black ink Chinese writing."

Fairfax House director Peter Brown showed the fragments to a Chinese student from the University of York, who said it was the remains of a decorator's shopping list, containing the costs of pigments needed to decorate the vase.

The paper, which is very delicate, will be sent out for further analysis.