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The Ca Mau Cargo Moon Gazing Hare saucer dish c.1725 browse these categories for related items... All Items: Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Chinese: Porcelain: Pre 1837 VR: item # 731834
Roger Bradbury Antiques Skeyton Lodge, Skeyton +44(0)1603737444 Guest Book £78.00 |
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| 'Moon Gazing Hare' pattern. This lovely saucer dish depicts a crouching hare gazing at the full moon set in a pine glade with flowers and foliage. The underglaze of the dish is cafe au lait (Batavian) glaze. The brown marks on this saucer are the rust residues of the ships, these of course could be removed but I find it more exciting to know that part of the sunken ship is left on this saucer. The saucer dish is in very good condition with no chips or cracks. It comes with the Sotheby's auction sticker. The wreck was discovered by fisherman working off the Ca Mau peninsular when their nets snagged on it. When they realised the porcelain was saleable they began dredging up as much as possible. Once the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information realised what was happening they moved in quickly to secure the wreck site. The excavation was lead by the Curator of The National Museum of Vietnamese culture. As you can see by the underside of the piece, not only does it have the Sotheby’s auction sticker but the reference numbers of the Vietnamese conservators. In all, 130,000 pieces were recovered and 76,000 of the finer condition pieces were selected to be sold by Sotheby’s. The ship was a Chinese ocean going junk, almost certainly en route from Canton (now Kuangzhou) to the Dutch trading port of Batavia (now Jakarta). Disaster struck off the Ca Mau peninsular, there was a fire on board so severe that some of the porcelain was fused together. There were a few wine cups recovered bearing the mark of the Emperor Yangzheng who reigned from 1723 to 1735. By this time tea and coffee was the rage throughout Europe and the principal traders were the East India Company and the VOC of Amsterdam. With the demand for tea came demand for porcelain by which to drink it and so most of what they imported in these year was tea wares. All these shipwrecks like the Ca Mau are regarded as time capsules packed with information allowing maritime historians and archaeologists an insight into the life and trade of the time. Here is an opportunity to own a piece of history with a fascinating story. Size, 10.8 cm in diameter. | ||||||||||
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