A GROUP OF THREE CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE TEK SING CARGO DISHES
18th - 19th Century
十八至十九世紀 「 的 星號」青花盤三件
The three dishes of identical designs, painted to the center with a spiralling motif and surrounded by panels of blossoms, the bases bearing the original labels from the Tek Sing Cargo sale at Nagel Auctions, Germany.
15.5cm diameter
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PROVENANCE:
Nagel Auctions, Germany, 2000;
English Private Collection
來源: 2000年德國Nagel拍賣行; 英國私人收藏
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NOTE:
In 1822, the Tek Sing, set sail from the port of Amoy (modern-day Xiamen in Fujian, China) en route to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). It was heavily loaded with porcelain goods. After a month at sea, the ship's captain, Io Tauko, decided to take a shortcut through the Gaspar Strait, located between the Bangka-Belitung Islands. Unfortunately, the Tek Sing struck a reef and sank.
In May 1999, British marine salvor Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of the Tek Sing in the South China Sea, located north of Java, east of Sumatra, and south of Singapore. Hatcher’s crew salvaged around 350,000 pieces from the ship’s cargo, marking what is considered the largest recovery of sunken Chinese porcelain in history.
The majority of the cargo consisted of Chinese blue-and-white common tableware, including bowls and tea cups, produced in the kilns of Dehua, China. While Dehua was once renowned for its pure-white blanc-de-Chine figurines, by the 18th and 19th centuries it had shifted to mass-producing ceramics for local markets. During a talk to the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society in Singapore on October 4, 2000, Captain Hatcher noted that the ceramics found were not made for European tastes; rather, their designs and shapes were distinctly Chinese.
Additionally, a small number of earlier Longquan celadons were discovered among the wreckage. Hatcher speculated that these items likely belonged to one or more passengers, as they were found separately from the main bulk of the cargo. The Tek Sing's recovered cargo was auctioned in November 2000 at Nagel Auctions in Stuttgart, Germany.