Lot 40. A Rare Blue and White Basin, 17th Century; 20.7cm., 8 1/8 in. Estimate 8,000 - 12,000 GBP. Lot sold 28,750 GBP. Photo Sotheby's

the deep straight sides rising from a slightly sunken base, painted to the interior with the Tang scholar Li Bai reciting from a book before an audience of dignitaries in a court setting, the top left of the curtains with an inscription reading Li Taibo niansong fanshu (Li Taibo reciting foreign books)

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 28th November 1979, lot 138

Exhibited: Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. 86.
Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period (circa 1620-1680 A.D.) from the Collection of Mr & Mrs Peter Thompson, Hull University, Hull, 1985, cat. no. 90.

Sotheby's. Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of Peter and Nancy Thompson. London, 07 nov. 2012