This seated figure of a boy with a blue tunic is part of a group of ceramics salvaged from the Tek Sing shipwreck that sank in 1822. The wares from the shipwreck are mostly of the late 18th to early 19th century. However, figures of boys such as this were a type of wares that was already considered antiques by that period as they were made during the early 18th century at Jingdezhen.A total of 350,000 pieces were retrieved from the ship, the largest haul of Chinese porcelain to date. This large haul indicates that the Southeast Asian demand for such products was high at that time. The bulk of the cargo was aimed at the wealthy Chinese community in Java and the middle and upper-class Javanese who were fond of collecting Chinese porcelain.
