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An exceptional Chinese Porcelain blue and white glazed teapot, painted with figural scenes, dating to the Qing Dynasty (1723-1735) and salvaged from the Ca Mau shipwreck.
A wonderful piece. One of the finest pieces recovered from the Ca Mau wreck. The octagonally formed teapot is wonderfully decorated with eight panels, both on the vessel and the lid. They display romantic scenes of dwellings by lakes, elaborate flowers and fishermen, one fishing at the shore and one in a boat. The handle and spout are also decorated with floral motif.
This fascinating artifact symbolises the reason for being of the Ca Mau wreck. It was 18th Century Europe's obsession with tea that largely explained the hunger for Chinese porcelain. Amongst the nobility and social elite, drinking tea with Chinese porcelain such as this was a fashionable activity. Such was the demand for this porcelain that trade Junks such as the Ca Mau, were loaded with export porcelain from China and bound for mainland Europe. Unfortunately the Ca Mau, which left China and was bound initially for Jakarta in modern day Indonesia, met its end in the treacherous waters of the South China Sea in the 1720's. Fishermen discovered the wreck in the 1990's and its contents were subsequently excavated and recorded by the Vietnamese authorities.
Height with lid: 4 3/8 inches.
Length: 6 3/4 inches.
Condition: Intact and in exceptional condition.
Provenance: Ca Mau wreck. Salvaged 1998.
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) that sank in the South China sea 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. 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: Dinh Chién, Tau Co Ca Mau (The Ca Mau shipwreck), 1723-1735, 2002 (Ha Noi). p 151 no. 154.
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