The palm-sized antique, used to hold paint brushes for Chinese calligraphy, went for the reserve price, according to Tsao. Christie’s International had estimated before the sale that the item, decorated with European-style mother-and-child images, might fetch HK$85 million. Tsao bought it in November for HK$67.5 million, a record for a Chinese glasswork. An Asian collector bought the item over the phone, said Christie’s.

The pot is part of Christie’s sale of Chinese ceramics, imperial clocks and other collectibles. Nearly 500 people — about 100 standing — packed the salesroom at Hong Kong Convention Center, among them about 30 were active bidders. Rapid-fire offers came for the Nezu Museum Qing Dynasty clocks, pushing some lots to more than 10 times their presale estimate. Activity cooled when ceramics and other items came on the block.

“People are increasingly going for the best; mediocre just won’t do,” said Qu Liqun, a Shanghai-based dealer who flew in to attend the auction. “It’s very obvious people were focused on the museum-quality pieces and items with detailed history of their previous owners and literary citations.”

A flurry of paddles and raised hands from Christie’s staff on the phone with clients came for Lot 1509, a three-tiered imperial musical clock topped with a floral bouquet, which sold for more than 10 times its presale estimate of HK$3.5 million. With a plummy, leveled British accent, auctioneer Hugh Edmeades coaxed additional HK$1 million bids from the audience.

A black-clad man in the front row, sipping on bottled wheat tea and whispering incessantly with a Taiwanese accent into a Motorola fold-out phone, competed fiercely for about half the lots, winning nearly all. He declined to be interviewed. The auction of 15 clocks raised HK$281 million.

“People were really coming out of the woodworks for this collection — a singular opportunity to get museum pieces,” said Kate Malin, a Christie’s Hong Kong spokeswoman.

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