The bowl is decorated in underglaze cobalt blue.Porcelain wares such as this bowl were found on the wreck of Vung Tao, an Asian trading vessel off the south coast of Vietnam. The ship was bound for Batavia (now Jakarta) from where the Dutch East India Company transhipped the porcelain to Europe. The Vung Tao cargo also included stoneware utility items such as this example for Southeast Asian markets. These included cups, bowls, saucers and oil lamps, which were probably made at kilns in other southern Chinese provinces such as Fujian rather than at Jingdezhen.
