BEAUTIFUL GLAZED VIETNAMESE POT FROM HOI AN SHIPWRECK IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Description: This is an item that I acquired in late October so it wasn't in the shipwreck sale except the last few days it was ongoing (from October 4-31) so it's not been seen by many collectors.This pot is much different than the several Hoi An pieces that were in the sale, several of which were sold. Those were very small hand painted mini pots almost as if they came from a child's tea set or dollhouse room. The Hoi An wreckage produced tens of thousands of items and it was done under the wathful eye of the Vietenam government; the ship was Vietnamese and quality of the workmanship has been well documented and since the ship was discovered, the actual kiln facility/compound was located in Vietnam. Understandably, most of what was found there from the 1700s into the 1800s consisted of damaged items and vrious sized shards. The surprisingly huge volume of items were painted and glazed then made their way to the coast to be loaded on ships headed for various Asian markets. Interetsingly, at the time, the well known painted designs (so typical blue on white porcelain surfaces) were thought--at the time--to be inappropriate for European anglo markets. I don't know what if any Asian decorative products were sent from Vietnam and China to European markets. While I have only read that such items were THOUGHT to be unpopular outside of Asian markets. I haven't a clue how long that perceived issue remained, but I can speak for my 50 years of collecting and selling artifacts and such pieces have been popular in the UK and US for many years. But it would make sense (stupid, but logical given the era) that these pieces that are now coveted by collectors worldwide were not popular or valued outside Asia at the time they were made. As antiques they've been highly valued for a very long time.This pot has a very distinctive green-brown color as you can see in the photos. This was the original paint as opposed to fading for a couple centuries in salt water. Since the painting was beneath the glaze it seems highly unlikely that it would have been subjected to damage from the elements. You will note the bottom of this 3+ inch tall pot or vase has the Hoi An "hoard" sticker with its assigned number. The Vietnamese government required a certain number of rare or unique designs be given to the country's museums, and also that a number of examples of the less rare pieces were also provided. Perhaps as much a 20-25% of the find ended up in the control of the government on behalf of Vietnamese museums. Still, the group who both discovered and salvaged the shipwreck still had a tremendous volume left to them for sale. Many were sold as is, broken or with no damage, and others had restoration work done prior to selling, while many were undamaged.This glazed and green-brown pot is the only one we were fortunate to acquire with the unusual design and color.This sized pot was in the mid-range of pots found at the wreck site, with the famous mini pots literally by the barrel load had been on the ship, while much larger pots designed to sit on a floor rather than table top were on the ship and many were filled with the tiny pots. There were so many items, they were common and low priced at the time and thus weren't packaged like items rare at the time. Photos from the wreck site show massive sprawling numbers of pots of varying sizes, some still filled with undamaged and also broken small items.While my expertise as a historian is focused primarily on American history, over the years I have done substantial reading about shipwrecks simply because they are such an interesting piece of history, wherever they occurred. Ships found in this hemisphere heightened collector interest because some were dubbed "treasure ships" because that is exactly what they carried--financial treasures rather than antiquarian pots and vases. Even today, the collector value of items such as from the Hoi An wreck still fall short of the ships carrying literally tons of gold and silver bars and coins. Much has been written about such cargoes that included rare gold coins, Mexican/Spanish 1/2 reales to 8 reales and so on.I will be listing such coins from the El Cazador, primarily small denomination silver, as well as other historic pieces.Obviously, finding gigantic gold bars and rare gold coins is what has made this treasure hunting "industry" so popular, but the vast majority of discovered shipwrecks are famous today for the ceramics and porcelain that can be found in exceptionally large numbers and are accessibile to collectors who don't have an extra $100,000 or so lying around for purchases.I doubt that I will have time to list many shipwreck finds now before I assemble the world's fair sale. If you have interest and a a budget I think you will find the hundreds of items in our inventory exciting for their historic interest and the ability to purchase such pieces for a tiny fraction of the bullion treasures.

Price: 67.99 USD

Location: Woodinville, Washington

End Time: 2024-11-12T00:49:31.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.5 USD