She's gorgeous!

Steve Wynn just paid over $10 million for this Ming vase. It is a lovely object - deserving of much affection, and I hope this is prominently on display in Vegas - but I guess I don't love it "$10 million dollars" much. Still, I'd be glad to ogle it like this fellow. You can tell, he likes his pottery.

Meanwhile, in a museum far far away, this hapless buckeroo helped increase the value of other vases:

"I snagged my shoelace, missed the step and 'crash bang wallop,' there was a million pieces of high-quality Qing ceramics lying around beneath me," Nick Flynn told BBC radio.

"There is no way my pocket will stretch to reimburse them for the damage that I have done".

The museum staff (The Fitzwilliam) vowed to glue the pieces together, and asked the patron to never come back, please.

Meet Cowpea red

She enjoys soft music and intimate candle-lit dinners. She likes it when her partner says silly things like "Gee, I'd like to drink soup out of you," though she'll admit that to do so might be a bit awkward. She doesn't mind ticklish facial hair but prefers clean shaven men - and occasionally a grease mustache (in case Wagstaff is interested). She considers herself Jingdezhen Ware. Although she is from the Kangxi Reign, she admits to lying about her age and saying she's from the Xianfeng Reign. She recently divorced a gourd-shaped vase and is very very available.

Chinese pottery speaks for itself

There's a reason we call nice dinnerware 'China': Chinese pottery is the best.

Qing pottery dazzles with vibrant colors. But strip that away, and what do you have? Well, you still have impressive detail as this celadon piece dating from the 18th century shows:

However, I prefer the more elegant Song style of pottery shown in this celadon jar dating from around 1127 to 1279:

The green is so deep in the smoothness of the Song piece that you think you could just walk right into it, whereas the detail in the Qing piece keeps your eye at the surface.

Beautiful Chinese ceramics...

This vase is from the Qing dynasty (ca 1736-1795). On display at The Shanghai Museum. Lots of good stuff there.