A rare blue and white cylindrical brush and ink holder, Wanli. Photo courtesy Bonhams

The cylindrical body painted on the exterior with groups of scholars engaged in the 'Four Arts of the Scholar', two admiring a painting, two playing chess, one looking at a boy carrying a musical stone and two reading a book, all within a terraced garden, the top pierced with three circular and one rectangular openings each separated by two ruyi-head and surrounding a central knop with a further circular opening. 14 cm (5½in) diam. Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 (€18,000 - 24,000) - Unsold

This type of stand appears to have been designed to hold brushes pointing with their tips straight upwards in the circular apertures, as illustrated in a painting depicting the famous philosopher Wang Yangming (see Wen Fong, Images of the Mind, Princeton, 1984, p.351); the rectangular aperture was intended for the ink stick. This type of porcelain receptacle is rare and relatively few appear to have been made.  

See the 1986 exhibition at The Oriental Society of Hong Kong, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Catalogue, no.212, where a similar design from the Jiajing period is illustrated, and another Jiajing mark and period example is illustrated by J.Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p.229, no.9:31

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART. London, New Bond Street. 7 Nov 2013