Chinese Song Terracotta Tile with Seated Figure

Each with concentric bands of blue hatching and scrolling, central rosette. 1.57 kg total, 16-16.6 cm



Ex Nagel Auction, with official Tek Sing Treasure labels to verso. Accompanied by an illustrated information sheet about the Tek Sing shipwreck.

The Tek Sing (True Star) wreck is one of the famous recovery stories of the 20th century. Sailing from the port of Xiamen (then known as Amoy) in February 1822 the vessel Tek Sing was bound for Jakarta, Indonesia laden with porcelain goods and 1600 Chinese emigrants. The captain decided to pass through the Gaspar Strait, between the Bangka-Belitung Islands, and ran aground on a reef. The vessel sank in about 100 feet of water. The next morning, February 7, an English East Indiaman captained by James Pearl, passing through the same waters, encountered debris and some survivors and managed to rescue about 190 of the latter.

Poster from the 1986 Christie's Amsterdam sale of porcelain and gold from Nanking; board-mounted in a metal frame. 4.35 kg , 58.5 x 80 cm



Ex Christie's, Amsterdam, 28 April-2 May 1985.

Comprising a broad square base with pelleted rim and foliage in low relief supporting a cuboid block; to three faces, a shallow recess with cadavers and squatting figure with three heads, to fourth face an integral gourd with socketted rim above and central void; to the forward edge of the base a cadaver flanked by two crouching figures with hands raised to their mouths, modelled in the round; to the upper face, four partial cadavers radiating from the centre in low relief, with a sitting figure to each corner with hands raised to the face, wearing a zoomorphic headdress; some traces of gilding. 5.14 kg, 18.5 cm wide



From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.