Bowl with bamboo

Title
Bowl with bamboo
Year/Period
Late 18th-early 19th centuries
Region
Fujian province, China
Material
Dimension
Object size: H6.0 x Dia 12.7 cm
Accession No.
2001-02462
Credit Line
Gift of Captain Michael Hatcher and Royal Selangor Pte Ltd

This bowl was part of a group of ceramics salvaged from the Tek Sing shipwreck that sank in 1822. It is decorated with floral motifs and rocky landscape around the exterior in underglaze blue. This bowl was from the Dehua kilns in Fujian province, which produced large quantities of blue and white porcelain although it is more famous in the West for its pristine ‘blanc-de-chine’ porcelain.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.