The blue and white vase went under the hammer for US$1,608,500 after 16 bidders volleyed bids at a stunning pace, despite its conservative pre-sale estimate between US$5,000 and US$10,000.

The prestigious vase realised more than half of the total of Skinner’s “Asian Art Works Online” sale, which brought in $2.5 million to the Boston-based auction house.

The vase, which features an elongated pear-shape and lotus-flower mouth opening, was discovered in the country home of an anonymous New England family, where it had been for generations.

According to the sale’s catalogue, this lotus-mouthed bottle vase is “nearly identical” to another Yongzheng vase of the same form that sold for over HK$23 million in 2011 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.

Skinner’s Asian art specialist Judith Dowling told Artnet News that this bottle vase has the particularity of carrying two reign marks on the bottom, namely a six-character Yongzheng mark and a double circle.

Additional highlights of Skinner’s “Asian Art Works Online” sale include an Archaic Inlaid Bronze Hu Vessel and a feline plaque from a unique group of Warring States gold objects, which respectively sold for $59,375 and $23,750.

A rare silver-inlaid bronze sundial from the 18th century also went under the hammer for US$336,500, with Skinner stating that only a handful of these angbu-ilgu sundials reportedly remain in existence nowadays.