Ref: Y828
Archive item - not for sale
Chinese blue and white Kraak bottle vase, c. 1643, decorated with six alternating panels containing winged horses galloping above waves amongst cloudscrolls and sprays of flowers, the neck with beaded pendants below a band of ruyi-motifs, height: 10 5/8in., 27cm. Provenance: From the Hatcher Collection; sold at Christie's Amsterdam 12-13th June 1984. The Hatcher Cargo (1643-1646) was recovered from the wreck of a Chinese junk in the South China seas port of Batavia (today Jakarta), where Chinese cargoes were transhipped to Dutch East Indiamen for their journey to Europe. In 1983 Captain Michael Hatcher and his crew brought up around 25,000 pieces of unbroken porcelain from the Hatcher junk, many of which were sold at Christies Amsterdam. A date for the cargo was established by the existence in the find of two pieces with the Chinese cyclical date of 1643. Four such vases are illustrated in Sheaf, Colin and Kilburn, Richard, The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes: The Complete Record, (Christie’s Ltd. 1988), p. 41, pl. 48. A similar vase is also illustrated in Lang, Gordon, the Wrestling Boys, p. 58, pl. 140. SOLD
