Collection of Chinese blue and white shipwreck cargo wares, Ming dynasty and later

Blue and white cargo porcelain recovered from a wreck, Ming dynasty and later. The group includes a Wanli period bowl, a second bowl, a tea bowl and a saucer dish, with further assorted bowls.

Shipwreck material carries its own evidence and its own damage: glaze dulled by long immersion, marine encrustation, and the characteristic surface abrasion of sand movement. None of that is a fault to be apologised for — it is the provenance, and it is why these pieces can be dated and placed with unusual confidence when the wreck is identified.

Shipwreck cargo porcelain in context

From the Ming onward, blue and white left China by sea in quantities that overland trade could never have carried, and the wrecks of that trade are now a recognised source: the Wanli cargo of the Witte Leeuw (1613), the Kangxi cargo of Vung Tau (c. 1690), the Yongzheng cargo of Ca Mau (c. 1725), the Nanking Cargo (1752) and the Tek Sing (1822), sold through Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Nagel and bought by the British Museum and the V&A among others.

Underglaze cobalt survives the sea; overglaze enamel does not, which is why nearly all recovered porcelain is blue and white, and encrustation and glaze wear are the normal marks of burial rather than faults. The wreck this group came from is not identified in the records held — and identifying a cargo, with its sale reference, is the single thing that most changes the value of material like this. We say so rather than invent a provenance. Wreck material brought into the UK from outside its waters is also subject to a reporting duty to the Receiver of Wreck.

Read more: shipwreck cargo porcelain and Ming porcelain.