Lot 3061. A large famille-rose olive-shape vase with birds and flowers, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); 64.5 cm., 25 1/4 in. Estimate 300,000 — 400,000 HKD. Lot Sold 7,820,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's

elegantly potted with an ovoid body springing from a smaller recessed foot, gently curving to a slender neck before flaring at the gilt-decorated mouth, brilliantly enameled with a pair of pheasants resting on a craggy ledge, the male pheasant with a long tail, his head turned toward the crouching female by his side, surrounded by leafy branches of peony and prunus, below a pair of magpies perching on a knotty branch of magnolia, the countersunk base inscribed in iron-red with a six-character reign mark within a square.

Provenance: Christie's Hong Kong, 1st October 1991, lot 787A.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 april 2011