A fine blue and white cylindrical brush pot, bitong. Early Kangxi, Qing Wan mark. Photo Bonhams

Painted in a dense continuous band around the straight body with a carefully-outlined design, two distinguished gentlemen playing weiqi seated at a table in a curtained pavilion attended by a kneeling figure presenting a letter, the design 'unrolling' to a saddled horse beside a newel post and another with a bannerman dismounting, divided by large clusters of overlapping rockwork carefully pencilled in 'Master of the Rocks' style in the space between the beginning and the end of the design, dividing an upper border of key-pattern and a lower band of wet blue dots, wood stand. 17.8cm (7in) diam. (2). Sold for £85,250

Provenance: Roberto Cramer
S.Marchant and Son, London
The Harriet Szechenyi Collection, Switzerland

A similar brushpot is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, bearing a cyclical date for 1673.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Art, 10 Nov 2011, New Bond Street  www.bonhams.com