Ca Mau Blue & White Cup and Saucer Set

£ 175.00

A very fine, porcelain cup and saucer set from the Chinese Ca Mau shipwreck. The two items are richly decorated in blue and white. Both the cup and the saucer feature a central medallion depicting a peacock standing on pierced rocks above a flowering garden. The rim of the saucer and exterior of the tea bowl are decorated with a sequence of smaller panels, some depicting figures in waterside landscapes, and others – flowering plants. The reverse of the plate is decorated with two linear patterns, perhaps simple foliage, framing a simple ring base. There is some encrustation to the reverse, typical of shipwreck pottery.

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This tea cup and saucer were made around 1725 at the porcelain workshops in Jingdezhen in southern China. They come from the Ca Mau shipwreck, sunk between 1725-1735, which Vietnamese fishermen discovered off the coast of the Ca Mau Peninsula in southern Vietnam in 1998. It is believed the wreck was a Chinese merchant’s junk on its way from Canton (Guangzhou) to Batavia when it caught fire and sank around 1725. The merchant had ordered the goods on board for Dutch traders, who had limited access to China and its ports. This cup and saucer were made for the European market.

To discover more about the Ca Mau shipwreck, please visit our relevant post: The Ca Mau Shipwreck.