HONG KONG (REUTERS).- A major collection of Chinese ceramics seen as one of the best to be sold in decades, fell flat in a Sotheby’s sale on Thursday, in a surprise setback for the market given a relative lack of Chinese buying interest and high estimates. Amid great market expectations, four hundred people crammed into Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction room for a chance to witness the sale of perhaps the best and last intact major private Western collections of Chinese ceramics, assembled over half a century by Swiss pharmaceutical tycoons, the Zuellig brothers. Bidding though, was surprisingly tame from the start for the 77 lots of Ming and Qing wares spanning dynasties from the 14th to 18th centuries, with 30 percent of lots going unsold and the sale netting just $51.2 million, around half the pre-sale