It was catalogued as European, possibly Flanders, dated to c.1770 and had a provenance to the Crichton Maitland collection.
Key to its appeal to Du Boulay - well-known as an expert on Chinese ceramics - was the subject matter.
To one side was a figure paddling a boat laden with blue and white porcelain.
It sailed past its £400-600 guide at the auction on March 8 to take £4400.
Sold at £1400 was another example of 18th century chinoiserie: a 5in (12.5cm) high inverted baluster form vase c.1755 of a type associated with south Staffordshire.
Again painted in a bright palette with a mandarin, a lady and two children, one riding a hobby horse beside a table of vases, it was sold at Sotheby’s in 1952 and again at Christie’s in 1983.
It also formed part of the Delomosne exhibition Gilding The Lily in 1978.