Description: A Tek Sing shipwreck blue and white porcelain cargo bowl decorated in the centre with an aster spray within a dot-dash ring, a band of dots within two parallel lines just inside the rim and the rim unglazed. On the underside a Nagel Auctions Tek Sing Treasures auction label. Two small cracks on the rim, otherwise the bowl in good condition.
Size: 120 mm/4.7 ins. in diameter
Culture: Chinese, Shipwreck ceramic
Date: c. 1822 A.D.
Notes: The Tek Sing (meaning ‘True Star’) shipwreck was a large Chinese ocean-going junk that was wrecked on a reef on the Belvidere Shoals, Gaspar Straits, Indonesia, in the South China Sea, in 1822, whilst on route from Xiamen (then known as Amoy) in Fujian, China, to Batavia, Dutch East Indies, the cargo ultimately intended for European markets. The wreck was discovered by British marine salvor Michael Hatcher in May 1999. His team recovered around 350,000 pieces of porcelain from the wreck – the largest recovery of Chinese shipwreck ceramics to date. The cargo was auctioned by Nagel Auctions in Stuttgart, Germany, in November 2000.
