A 'Longquan' celadon vase (meiping). Photo Sotheby's

sturdily potted, with broad, swelling shoulders rising to a short neck with everted rim and tapering to a waisted foot, crisply carved with a continuous frieze of leafy lotus scroll below a narrow cloud scroll border and above a wide band of stiff upright leaves around the foot carved in low relief, applied overall with a rich olive-green glaze, the rim unglazed and burnt orange in the firing; Height 10 1/2 in., 26.8 cm. Estimate 35,000-45,000 USD

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York. 14 september 2011 www.sothebys.com