Antique Chinese copper/bronze double peacock vase/vessel

I don't know much about this piece, other than I personally picked it up in China many years ago, somewhere near the Yangtze River, if I recall correctly.  I don't know if it is real or a copy, I only purchased it because it looked interesting and different from anything else that I saw while I was there.  Many people (by no means experts) have told me that they think it may be real due to the heavy patina and tarnishing on it.  I have never tried to clean it in any way and it pretty much looks exactly the same today as the day I found it.  I have brought it to several auctioneers to try and get an idea of whether or not it is worth anything and so far no one has been able to tell me anything about it, nor whether or not it is even real.  Skinner's told me that they had not seen anything like it before and therefore don't know what to compare it to.  This made absolutely no sense to me, and I would have at least expected them to be able to tell me whether or not it is genuine.  I would very much appreciate any feed back anyone can give here.  Thank you.