Nanking Cargo c1750 Chinese Shipwreck Porcelain Large Lattice Fence Dish 16

  

Nanking Cargo c1750 Chinese Shipwreck Porcelain Large Lattice Fence Dish. This large example has been delicately hand painted in cobalt blue with a riverscape setting. The near bank depicts rocks and a willow tree by the water's edge with a fence decorated with long life symbols. The distant rocky bank is painted with a smaller pavilion beside trees and bamboo.

The border of this dish depicts three clusters of flowering branches to include chrysanthemum, prunus, daisy, bamboo and tree peony. Scanned pages taken from the sale catalogue relating to this dish will be provided along with the sale. The Nanking cargo is the most famous of the shipwreck cargoes.

It attracted world wide media attention when it was auctioned by Christies Amsterdam in April 1986. She set sail from Canton on December 18th 1751 bound for Amsterdam. The valuable cargo consisted of over 160,000 pieces of porcelain, tea, raw silk, textiles and one hundred and forty five gold ingots. On January 3rd 1752, after 16 days sailing the Geldermalsen hit a reef and sank in the South China Sea. I spent four days viewing the porcelain in order to select the nicer pieces.