Small dish on footring, spreading rim. Decorated in underglaze blue with a Chinese figure sitting on a stool and playing a pipa. Above him a small moon. On the reverse four cloud motifs. On the base a rectangular mark. Ko-sometsuke for the Japanese market (see cat. 33). Chinese intellectuals were expected to be proficient on a stringed lute-like instrument such as the pipa (seen here) and the qin (see cat. 38). Other suitable occupations were poetry, calligraphy, painting and playing a Chinese variant of chess (weiqi). A polychrome version is in the Kempe Collection, Ulricehamn, Sweden (Gyllensvard).