A blue and white sleeve vase. Transitional period. photo Sotheby's

of slender cylindrical form, painted with a scene of an official receiving a scholar and his acolyte while holding a sprig of flowers in his hand, two attendants stand closely behind bearing wrapped gifts, all within a garden landscape with craggy rockwork and various trees including pine, willow, and plantain, the waisted neck further painted with four leafy sprigs of blossoming tulips; height 16 1/2 in., 42 cm. Estimate 35,000—45,000 USD.. Lot Sold  68,500 USD

NOTE: According to Michael Butler, Margaret Medley, and Stephen Little in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, 1990, porcelain pieces depicting tulips such as the present lot are often produced for the Dutch market. For an example of a vase in a similar form also painted with tulips, see ibid., no. 98.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 23 Mar 11. New York www.sothebys.com