A Small Transitional Porcelain Box and Cover From The Hatcher Cargo.
A Small Transitional Porcelain Box and Cover From the Hatcher Cargo, Late Ming, Chongzhen Period c.1643. The small circular shipwreck porcelain box and cover is decorated with over lapping waves with a single open prunus flower to the top. The design is almost hidden because the painting is added to a cobalt blue ground of an almost identical tone. You need a strong light to reveal the decoration. Teresa Canepa in her excellent book Jingdezhen to the World: The Lurie Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain from the Late Ming Dynasty. She quotes an example a of late Ming porcelain box and cover with the same design, as well as approximately the same size, that come from early an important early English of Chinese and Japanese porcelain collection at Burghley House in Lincolnshire. Teresa Canepa mentions a further example which is in the Royal Collection Trust. I think these boxes were made with for fairly local export, perhaps Indonesia. However, these are commercial products, and if merchants from other countries wanted to buy them, that was just good business for the seller.
RESERVED
See Below For More Photographs and Information
- Condition
- In very good condition, almost no signs of it being in the sea. It has the original Christie's Hatcher Auction label to the unglazed base.
- Size
- Diameter 4.7cm (1.8 inches) Height 3.6 cm (1.4 inches)
- Provenance
- Purchased in the 1980's from the original Hatcher Cargo auction of June 1984..
- Stock number
- 2 6 3 5 2
- References
- For a box of this size shape and design see - Jingdezhen to the World: The Lurie Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain from the Late Ming Dynasty (Teresa Canepa, published by Ad Ilissvm 2019. ISBN 978-1-912168-09-5) item 127, page 352. A Transitional Blue and White Porcelain Box and Cover painted with a cricket is in the British Museum, see : Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum.(Jessica Harrison-Hall.The British Museum Press, 2001. ISBN 0-7141-1488-X.) page 391, item 12:95. Auction Catalogue - Fine And Important Late Ming And Transitional Porcelain, Recently Recovered from an Asian Vessel in the South China Sea. Property of Captain Michael Hatcher. Christie`s Amsterdam 14th March 1984.
Photos
Information
The Hatcher Cargo :
The Hatcher Cargo was the first porcelain cargo from a shipwreck to come on to the market. It was sold in several auctions in Christie`s Amsterdam in 1984 and 1985. It remains one of the most important cargoes of shipwreck ceramics ever recovered, despite the lack of historical evidence recorded by the salvage team. Two porcelain covers dated 1643 helped date the wreck but this needed corroborating to give a firm date of the wreck and it`s cargo.
The dating of the porcelain from the Hatcher Cargo is based on several elements. Firstly, the ceramics recovered form a coherent group, in other words they appear to all have been made at the same time. Secondly comparative dating was used to corroborate the date of the porcelain. For example, blue and white porcelain dishes decorated with a coiled serpent recovered from the Hatcher Cargo match an important dish from the fall of the Ming dynasty, formerly in the Percival David Foundation, now at the British Museum London, this dish can be dated to 1644 - 1645.
Other comparative dating is also consistent with the presumed date of the porcelain. However, the most important dating reference remains the two covers recovered from the wreck datable by inscription to the spring of 1643. Although the the Ming dynasty officially ended in 1644 the transition from the Ming to the beginning of the Qing was messy and protracted. The porcelain made during this period of civil war and chaos is referred to as `Transitional Porcelain`. It covers the period from the last Ming Emperors until the early years of the Kangxi period, which is normally given a date of about 1620 to 1670 . The Hatcher Cargo is a vital dating tool for this previously poorly understood period of Chinese porcelain production.
A Small Circular Hatcher Cargo Box and Cover c.1643.
Robert McPherson Antiques - Sold Archive - 26088.
Condition
In very good condition, minute frits to the inside of the cover, almost no signs of it being in the sea. Adhesive to base, probably the remains of the original label.
Size
Diameter 5.1 cm (2 inches) Height 3.4 cm (1 1/3 inches)
Provenance
Purchased in the 1980's from one of the original Hatcher Cargo auctions. It lacks a Hatcher label.
Stock number
26088
References
A Transitional Blue and White Porcelain Box and Cover of this type with a cricket is in the British Museum, see : Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum.(Jessica Harrison-Hall.The British Museum Press, 2001. ISBN 0-7141-1488-X.) page 391, item 12:95. Auction Catalogue - Fine And Important Late Ming And Transitional Porcelain, Recently Recovered from an Asian Vessel in the South China Sea. Property of Captain Michael Hatcher. Christie`s Amsterdam 14th March 1984.