A large blue and white rouleau vase , Kangxi period (1662-1722). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014

The sides are decorated in intense shades of underglaze blue with a continuous scene of scholars in a mountain retreat, with a group of four gathered around a weiqi board, two in conversation, and one accompanied by an attendant carrying a qin on a rock bridge that spans a river in which further scholars are shown in a boat in the foreground. Penciled decorative bands and a bow string band encircle the neck, and a ribbon-tied, leafy sprig within double blue-line circles is on the base. 19¾ in. (50.2 cm.) high. Estimate $100,000 – $150,000

Provenance: Tonying & Co., New York, 1923.
Horace D. Chapin Collection, and thence by descent to Mrs. Robert B. Osgood (d. 1957), and Ellen Osgood Jennings (d. 2005).

Exhibited: On loan: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 May - 4 October 1940.
On loan: Harvard University Art Museum, May 1955 - March 2006.
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, The Persistence of Memory: Continuity and Change in American Cultures, July 1995 - May 2001.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. 20 - 21 March 2014, New York, Rockefeller Plaza - www.christies.com