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Published: Jean-Paul Desroches (ed.) et al, Two Americans in Paris. A Quest for Asian Art, Paris, 2016, p. 206-207, no. 330 (part-lot).
Exhibited:
1. Pointe-à-Callière Museum, From the Lands of Asia. The Sam and Myrna Myers Collection, Montréal, 17 November 2016-19 March 2017.
2. Kimbell Art Museum, From the Lands of Asia. The Sam and Myrna Myers Collection, Fort Worth, Texas, 4 March-19 August 2018.
Vietnam, Hai Duong province, Chu Dau kilns. Heavily potted, the pear-shaped body rising from a flaring foot to a waisted neck with everted rim, set with a long handle and elegantly curved spout. The body applied at the center with two openwork panels of tear drop form, depicting a parrot amid foliage. The sides meticulously painted in cobalt blue with three immortals resting below pines and bamboo, framed by a band of stiff plantain leaves above and lotus petals below. The base and panels unglazed revealing the gray ware, and the panels further highlighted with red pigments.
Provenance: Recovered between 1997-1999 from the Hoi An Hoard Shipwreck Site, Vietnam. The base with an excavation label, ‘Saga Visal Oxford U, 3917 VN99CCW’. Butterfields, California, 2000. The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, Paris, France, probably acquired from the above.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and firing irregularities including light warping, a faint hairline crack to the handle and the bridge connecting the spout, few tiny chips to the rims of the mouth and spout, remnants of pigment.
Weight: 763 g
Dimensions: Height 23.9 cm
The form of this elegant ewer was probably imported from the Chinese tradition, originally inspired by West Asian metalwork. Although heavily influenced by the Chinese ceramic tradition, Vietnam materials and potting styles are unique. Technically not ‘porcelain’, these stonewares are different in appearance from Chinese and other Southeast Asian ceramics as they are typically more heavily potted and have an off-white clay body.
During the fifteenth century, when Ming dynasty China closed its ports and introduced export bans on ceramics, the Vietnamese ceramic industry flourished. Potters, especially those located near the small village of Chu Dau in the Red River Delta, produced thousands of wares for export to regions as far west as Egypt and as far east as Japan.
This ewer was cargo on a teakwood junk—a type of boat with Chinese origins, defined by a high stern and projecting bow—that sank during the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century near the Cham Islands in the South China Sea. The boat, which likely originated in Thailand, was heading toward the Philippines and was heavily laden with ceramic cargo. It likely fell victim to the sea’s treacherous currents or to a typhoon. Seventy meters (nearly 230 feet) below the surface, the boat lay underwater, undisturbed until 1993, when Vietnamese fishermen from Hoi An accidently recovered ceramics with their nets. The fishermen attempted to keep the shipwreck a secret. However, after they strategically dragged metal rakes across the wreckage, hundreds of ceramics were broken and dislodged, thereby floating into other fishermen’s nets, and ultimately flooding the art market. It was not until 1997, when two Japanese dealers were detained in the Da Nang airport with baggage filled with fifteenth-century pottery that the Vietnamese government obtained knowledge of the wreck’s exact location and enlisted the expertise of both archaeologists and the Ministry of Culture.
In 1997, the Vietnamese government secured the assistance of the Vietnamese National Salvage Corporation (VISAL); Saga Horizon, a Malaysian marine engineering company; and Oxford University’s Marine Archaeology Research Division. The scientific study of the wreckage depended upon an advance team with cutting-edge technology, as the extreme depth of the wreck and the dangerous currents made it impossible for archeologists to conduct standard air dives. Managed by marine archeologist Frank Pope, led by the Oxford’s esteemed marine archeologist Mensun Bound, and financed by Singaporean businessman Ong Soo Hin, the team executed three complex, risky excavations that cost nearly fourteen million dollars. Between 1996 and 1999, the team ultimately recovered nearly three hundred thousand artifacts.
Once retrieved from the floor of the South China Sea, all artifacts were inventoried, tagged with an excavation sticker that noted the excavation partners and the unique object number, and stored in three huge warehouses. Vietnam’s National History Museum retained all “one-of-a-kind” objects, and the Ministry of Culture distributed hundreds of ceramics to regional museums. The remaining inventory of artifacts was sent to Butterfields, an American auction house based in San Francisco and now owned by Bonhams. The three-part auction of the “Hoi An Hoard” took place from October 11 to October 13, 2000, both live and online, using eBay’s innovative live auction technology. Indeed, this was a groundbreaking event, as it was one of the first auctions to happen both digitally and in person. Collectors, however, were simply not ready to buy works of art online, as nearly sixty percent of the lots did not sell. On December 3, 2000, Butterfields hosted another sale that featured pieces from the Hoi An Hoard. This sale provided a rare opportunity for avid ceramic collectors to purchase important pieces of Vietnamese material culture at reasonable prices, as museums had already purchased major pieces in the October sale.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related blue and white ewer from North Vietnam, dated to the 15th-16th century, 23.5 cm high, in the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, accession number 1997-02257.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s Paris, 10 December 2020, lot 97
Price: EUR 12,500 or approx. EUR 14,500 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A blue and white enameled stoneware vase, Vietnam, circa 16th century
Expert remark: Compare similar form, decoration, and motifs. Note the size (29.2 cm).
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