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A large Chinese blue and white glazed porcelain figure of a chubby boy, dating to the Qing Dynasty (1723-1735) and salvaged from the Ca Mau shipwreck.
The chubby boy depicted seating, his legs flexed and his hands cupped and facing outwards. His head tilted slightly to the left and his face with happy, serene expression. He wears a blue apron and his hair has been tied back into a top-knot. Perhaps originally intended to provide support for something, this artifact represents one of the few figural ceramics from the Ca Mau wreck. It is also one of the largest, being substantially bigger than other boy figures found on the Ca Mau.1
Height: 3 7/8 inches.
Condition: Intact and in exceptional condition.
Provenance: Ca Mau wreck. Salvaged 1998 and catalogued by the Vietnamese authorities.
The Ca Mau Wreck:
This antique artifact was exported from Jingdezhen (a Kiln in southern China) on the Ca Mau vessel, a Junk bound for the port of Jakarta (in modern day Indonesia). The Ca Mau Junk (a large trade vessel) was capitalizing on the booming business of Chinese Export porcelain. The beginning of the 18th Century saw an insatiable European appetite for Chinese ceramics and this charming figure would almost certainly have ended up in a European home were it not for the loss of the Ca Mau in the 1720's.
Archaeologists have discerned that the final hours of the Ca Mau were spent ablaze, as the crew failed to control a fire on the ships deck. Indeed, this figure reflects that fact, being blackened in places due to the searing temperatures on board! She finally sunk thirty nautical miles off the Ca Mau peninsula in southern Vietnam, her memory lost until fishermen happened upon her whilst trawling in 1998.
References:
1 Dinh Chién, Tau Co Ca Mau (The Ca Mau shipwreck), 1723-1735, 2002 (Ha Noi). p. 187 nos. 253 & 254. These figures measure 8.5cm (3 3/4 inches) each.
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