Description: Chinese export porcelain saucer; made in Jingdezhen, China; hard-paste porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue enamel and iron slip (Bataviaware), c. 1725. Saucer was part of the "Ca Mau” cargo, a Chinese junk shipwrecked off Ca Mau, Vietnam. Cargo was en route to Batavia (Jakarta) and intended for the Dutch market. In June 1998, a fisherman working off the coast of the Ca Mau peninsula on the southern tip of Vietnam, discovered the wreck of an 18th-century ship filled with Chinese export porcelain. In all, 130,000 pieces of porcelain were retrieved from the site. It was established that this was a Chinese junk heading for the Dutch trading port of Batavia (present day Jakarta) and the reason for its sinking was an intense fire on board. The dating of the porcelain could be further narrowed down to around 1725 by the presence of other pieces of porcelain made during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (d. 1722). Many examples of Batavia ware cups and saucers – or porcelain with an iron exterior wash were excavated from the site. This pattern is what is known as the “Wild Cherry” pattern.
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2012.13 |