This encrusted tea bowl was part of a group of ceramics salvaged from the Tek Sing shipwreck that sank in 1822. On the exterior, there are three floral motifs in underglaze blue. Its rim is also decorated with a dotted band on the interior and exterior of the bowl. This tea bowl could be 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.
