An assorted lot of Chinese blue and white 'Vung Tau Cargo' porcelain

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THE 'VUNG TAU CARGO' In 1989, a Vietnamese fisherman made the chance discovery of the 'Vung Tau Cargo' by trawling the sea-bed on the Southern Coast of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The cargo was salvaged by the state owned Vietnam Salvage Corporation in a joint-venture operation with the Singapore based Swedish diving expert, Sverker Hallstrom. The salvaged contents was subsequently sold at Christie's Amsterdam in a two-day sale of 1011 lots on 7th and 8th April 1992. The ship was an Asian trading vessel that had been burnt to the waterline as it was almost certainly bound for Indonesia from China. Batavia (now Jakarta) was the centre of the enormous Dutch East India Company (VOC) where a mixed consignment would have been prepared for the homeward run to Amsterdam or elsewhere along the Nederlandish seaboard. There was little to date the wreck except a few coins of the reign of the emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) and an inkstick bearing the cyclical date corresponding to AD 1690. The best evidence lies in fact in the study of the porcelain itself that must have been produced within a decade of AD 1683, the year that ceramic historians regard as the official date of the re-opening of China's kilns at Jingdezhen after the Civil War that had disrupted the industry since 1630's. The contents of the 'Vung Tau Cargo' is a testimony to the rapid increase during the Kangxi period in the production of blue and white porcelain was made in a large variety of shapes for the Dutch Export market so that it could dress in large quantities the fixed ornamentation of a room. The popularisation of this fashion is credited to the French Hugenot Daniel Marot (1661-1752), the court dessinateur of King Stadholder William III and his English wife Queen Mary II. Marot's skills as a designer touched many areas of interior decorating with a concern for all details of a chic interior in a modified French manner which is well illustrated in numerous Livres published between 1702-1715. One thing he did not learn from current fashion at Versailles, where European fashion was increasingly set during the period, was to incorporate porcelain into room detailing, along the top of cornices, up tiered fireplace overmantels, on corner hanging brackets, inside door reveals. The style was to be fair, known in France, but the popularisation of this striking usage was largely his achievement; initially in Holland, latterly in England at Hampton Court and elsewhere. There was an identifiable 'Dutch Style' in this manner of display, which differentiated it from the Italians, Germans and Frenchmen who also collected porcelain during the 17th Century, and organised it in careful displays.

An assorted lot of Chinese blue and white 'Vung Tau Cargo' porcelain

CIRCA 1690

Details

An assorted lot of Chinese blue and white 'Vung Tau Cargo' porcelain
Circa 1690
Comprising a pair of teabowls, covers and saucers, hatch-painted with flower-shaped panels of stylised wisteria; a set of four ocatgonal saucers; a pair of small octagonal cups; and six various 'Doll's House' miniature pear-shaped and baluster vases, small restorations and crack, minute frittings (16)

Special notice

Christie's charge a buyer's premium of 20% (VAT inclusive) for this lot.

Lot Essay

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