26th Apr, 2023 11:00
Asian & Islamic Works of Art
14
SIX CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE NANKING CARGO TEABOWLS AND SIX SAUCERS, QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1750
each painted in rich cobalt-blue tones with a pine tree issuing from rockwork, saucer 10.3cm diameter
Provenance: Property of a European Collector (see lot 8 for further details); Christie’s, ‘The Nanking Cargo’, Amsterdam, 28 April - 2 May 1986; Jim Williams, Mercer House, Savannah GA, sold Sotheby’s, ‘Mercer House, Savannah’, New York, 20 October 2000, lot 27 (part)
When the Dutch East India Company vessel the ‘Geldermalsen’ (built in 1746) crashed into a reef and sank in the South China Sea on 3rd January 1752, it went down claiming eighty crew members and a huge and precious cargo of tea, textiles, gold, silk, lacquer and porcelain. The ‘VOC’ (as the Dutch East India Company is often known) spent weeks interrogating the few survivors who had made it to Batavia (Jakarta), in the hope of recovering something from the huge loss. Eventually only the cargo’s gold and porcelain made it back to the original destination, Amsterdam, 234 years late, following its salvage by Michael Hatcher. The meticulous contemporary notes of the VOC, instrumental in locating the wreck, also reveal that over 100,000 pieces of porcelain accounted for only 5% of the cargo’s original value; the tea in which it was packed as ballast represented the cargo’s real treasure for the VOC. In the mid 18th century, Chinese blue and white porcelain was advertised as Nanking China, hence Christie’s title for the sale: ‘The Nanking Cargo’. The size of the haul and its extraordinary story really caught the public imagination; the record breaking auction in Amsterdam was held over five days of frenzied bidding, raising a staggering total of $20 million.
Jim Williams (1930-1990) ran a successful antiques business from his mansion Mercer House in the midst of Savannah’s Historic District. He was pre-eminent in the movement to preserve the district, but is perhaps better known for his acquittal, after four trials, of a murder which had occurred in his house. Williams was the subject of John Berendt’s book ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’, subsequently made into a film of the same name, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood.
Sold for £650
each painted in rich cobalt-blue tones with a pine tree issuing from rockwork, saucer 10.3cm diameter
Provenance: Property of a European Collector (see lot 8 for further details); Christie’s, ‘The Nanking Cargo’, Amsterdam, 28 April - 2 May 1986; Jim Williams, Mercer House, Savannah GA, sold Sotheby’s, ‘Mercer House, Savannah’, New York, 20 October 2000, lot 27 (part)
When the Dutch East India Company vessel the ‘Geldermalsen’ (built in 1746) crashed into a reef and sank in the South China Sea on 3rd January 1752, it went down claiming eighty crew members and a huge and precious cargo of tea, textiles, gold, silk, lacquer and porcelain. The ‘VOC’ (as the Dutch East India Company is often known) spent weeks interrogating the few survivors who had made it to Batavia (Jakarta), in the hope of recovering something from the huge loss. Eventually only the cargo’s gold and porcelain made it back to the original destination, Amsterdam, 234 years late, following its salvage by Michael Hatcher. The meticulous contemporary notes of the VOC, instrumental in locating the wreck, also reveal that over 100,000 pieces of porcelain accounted for only 5% of the cargo’s original value; the tea in which it was packed as ballast represented the cargo’s real treasure for the VOC. In the mid 18th century, Chinese blue and white porcelain was advertised as Nanking China, hence Christie’s title for the sale: ‘The Nanking Cargo’. The size of the haul and its extraordinary story really caught the public imagination; the record breaking auction in Amsterdam was held over five days of frenzied bidding, raising a staggering total of $20 million.
Jim Williams (1930-1990) ran a successful antiques business from his mansion Mercer House in the midst of Savannah’s Historic District. He was pre-eminent in the movement to preserve the district, but is perhaps better known for his acquittal, after four trials, of a murder which had occurred in his house. Williams was the subject of John Berendt’s book ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’, subsequently made into a film of the same name, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood.
Auction: Asian & Islamic Works of Art, 26th Apr, 2023
