ATLANTA – Fourteen lots of blue and white Chinese Export porcelain salvaged from a famous shipwreck will be sold at Great Gatsby’s Auction Gallery’s three-day auction Feb. 10-12. Absentee and Internet bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
When the Geldermalsen crashed on a reef and sank in the South China Sea during its return journey to the Netherlands on Jan. 3, 1752, 80 crew members who went down with the vessel’s cargo of tea, textiles, gold, silk, lacquer and porcelain. The loss of the Geldermalsen, which was owned by the powerful Dutch East India Company, was major news in it its day.
Over 200 years later, British salvage expert Michael Hatcher excavated the ship and its contents, giving new understanding of the 18th century porcelain trade and its availability. The 14 lots of blue and white porcelain from this incredible salvage are from the personal collection of one of the expedition’s private backers.
Hatcher, along with partner Max de Rham, a marine geophysicist, led a successful team of divers who unearthed the cargo. “The Nanking Cargo,” as it became known by its sale at Christie’s Amsterdam in April of 1985, contained a massive trove of the aforementioned blue and white porcelain, which was originally potted in China’s Jiangzi province.
The sheer scope of this find shed light on the true nature of the market’s demands, as traditional experts had always believed the records kept by the DEIC had exaggerated their shipments of porcelain. Safely protected underwater by the tea loosely packed in wooden crates, the porcelain in the Nanking Cargo represented the range of influence Eastern artisans had over Western tastes during the 18th century.
Hatcher and his team had the untouched archives of the DEIC in Holland to thank for locating the whereabouts of this famous – and suspicious wreck. Due to the nature of the disaster – in well charted waters by one of the world’s most esteemed shipping companies – the DEIC spent weeks interrogating the survivors who had made it to present-day Jakarta on two open boats.
Not only was an entire cargo worth of valuable porcelain and trade goods missing, but so was the gold, at first believed to be hidden by the survivors. With such detailed records on hand, Hatcher would embark on months of searching, believing his efforts to be worthless until they unearthed the treasure from a 3-foot layer of silt and coral.
The excitement generated by the find was evident during the first frenzied days of the cargo’s namesake auction at Christie’s Amsterdam. International interest – both financial and historical – had taken hold and this caught the attention of the Chinese government, who tried unsuccessfully to bring the porcelain back to its country of origin.
Maritime salvage laws permitted the cargo to go across the auction block, where it broke numerous records and raised a staggering $20 million.
The auction will start at 11 a.m. Eastern all three days.
For details contact Great Gatsby’s Auction Gallery at 770-457-1903 or auction@greatgatsbys.com.
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