Unidentified shipwreck wares

Unidentified Shipwreck wares

In this category objects are added that have been submerged in seawater for a long time and were most likely part of (an unidentified) shipwreck's cargo.

201068

Shipwreck Porcelains - Unidentified Shipwreck wares

Object 201068

Dish

(Southeast) China, Zhangzhou (Swatow)

1570-1650

Height 50 mm (1.97 inch), diameter of rim 268 mm (10.56 inch), diameter of footring 120 mm (4.73 inch), weight 769 grams (27.13 ounce (oz.))

Dish on footring, straight rim. Decorated in reverse underglaze blue with two standing phoenixes facing and overlapping one another flanked by peony. The background is completely filled with leafy scrolls and leaves. On the rim five foliated medallions each filled with flowers, in between the medallions a concentric waves decoration. The reverse with three floral sprays.

This dish was, most likely, part of a shipwreck's cargo. It is unknown of which ship. All the glaze has worn of due to being submerged in sea water for centuries. Similar shaped and decorated dishes were found amongst the cargo of 'The Binh Thuan Shipwreck' a Chinese merchant vessel on its way from China to Johore that sank off southern Vietnam in 1608. Its recovered porcelain cargo was sold by Christie's Australia in 2004.

A identically shaped, sized and decorated dish was found amongst the ceramic load of the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) cargo vessel Witte Leeuw shipwreck which had gone down near St. Helena, on its homeward voyage in 1613, to see this dish, please see:

• The ceramic load of the "Witte Leeuw" (1613), (C.L. van der Pijl-Ketel, catalogue Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1982), p.204, inv.no:NG 1977-166W.

For similarly decorated dishes, please see:

• Oriental Ceramics at the Cape of Good Hope 1652-1795. An account of the porcelain trade of the Dutch East India Company with particular reference to ceramics with the V.O.C. monogram, the Cape Market and South African Collections, (C.S. Woodward, Cape Town & Rotterdam, 1974), p.12, cat. 17.
• Zhangzhou (Swatow) Ceramics. Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries Found in Indonesia, (S. Adhyatman, The Ceramic Society of Indonesia, 1999), p.92, cat. 91
• The Binh Thuan Shipwreck, sale catalogue Christie’s Melbourne, 1 & 2 March 2004, lot 54-89, 227-259, 445-474, 653-670 & 733-749.

Condition: Perfect but without glaze.

References:

Tokyo 1965, cat. 490

Lunsingh Scheurleer 1966, cat. 9a

Woodward 1974, cat. 17

Pijl-Ketel 1982, inv.no: NG 1977-166W

Adhyatman 1999, cat. 91

Melbourne 2004, lot 54-89, 227-259, 445-474, 653-670 & 733-749.

Price: € 499 Currency Converter

More pictures >>