Lot 230. A blue and white shallow bowl, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 15.8 cm, 6 1/4  in. Estimate: £5,000 - £7,000. Lot Sold: £18,750. © Sotheby's

the curved sides rising from a short foot to a slightly flared rim, the interior painted in bright cobalt blue with a lady and a scholar inside a pavilion, situated in a fenced garden and trees issuing from rocks in the background, with a deer in the foreground, the exterior with a sampan in a mountainous river landscape, the base inscribed with qishi baoding zhi zhen (precious as a treasured ding of rare stone) in underglaze blue within a double circle.

Note: See a blue and white bowl painted with a similar motif, but with a Kangxi mark and of the period, included in the exhibition Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. 108; and another illustrated in Stephen Little, Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period: 1620-1683, China Institute in America, New York, pl. 29. 

Sotheby's. St George Street Sale: Chinese Art, London, 10 November 2017