A teapot belonging to Britain's Queen Elizabeth I has sold for more than $1 million.

The china "Wucai" piece, made for a Chinese emperor during the Ming dynasty in the late 1500s, went under the hammer at London auction house Sotheby's.

The antique, decorated with songbirds and trees, is believed to be one of the first examples of imperial porcelain to be brought to English shores. It is thought that an English explorer obtained the pot and it was presented to the 16th century queen as a gift for favor.

It sold for $1,450,000 to London-based antique dealer Littleton and Hennessy, bidding on behalf of an overseas collector.

Alastair Gibson of Sotheby's said: "It is a wonderful, exotic and historic piece which would have blown people's minds. You never saw porcelain in Europe then - it just didn't exist. Everything was dull and tawdry and people were mainly eating of metal. It symbolizes a new age of travel and exploration."

The queen gave the 10 inch silver-mounted pot to her chaplain Henry Parry, the Bishop of Worcester, on her deathbed in 1603.

Over the years the piece has passed through several families. In 1976 it became part of the British Rail Pension Fund Collection, before being sold again in 1989.