Marked Down, Below Cost! -- Hoi An Vietnam Shipwreck Small Pot-Please Read Why Photos are so Bad!

I found out about the Hoi An shipwreck several years ago and was able to buy several pots over time; I have four of them remaining. All but one are in the cello wrap including the sticker from the agency for the government of Vietnam affixed and I assumed a buyer would like to be able to make the decision about keeping it as sealed or removing it for display. I decided to open just one to photograph it so you can see the style, decoration, glaze and so on typical of these myriad mini jugs.

When I say "miniature" it is accurate: The pots measure only about 1 1/2 inches in height.

When I first learned about the shipwreck I discovered that no one knew the name of the ship! It wasn't HOI AN, but rather was designated the "Hoi An shipwreck" because it was discovered close to Hoi An in Vietnam.

The ship was, like most of these Asian and Asian trade ships, full of an enormous number of pots, dishes, etc. Often the discovery of a sunken vessel occurs when a fisherman brings up a net with ceramics instead of fish and then when the word comes out, the divers get to work. Very often the ship is NOT found immediately, but there is a "strewn field" where tides and storms and other factors deposited the items quite a distance from the ship--and the ship might actually be completely buried with nothing visible at first.

It's easy to envision a pottery vessel the size of a 55-gallon drum which is how many of these cargoes were shipped. This, in the HOI AN's case, could mean literally htousands of the tiny pieces in one massive pot. In other shipwrecks, coins have been found in a similar fhsion.

The designson these pots are all unique, added with a few brush strokes so they are ite similar to one another. again, having one piece out of the cello provides you with a sense of the item wherease still in the cello you cannot see the painting, glaze or other characteristics of the mini pot. I'm guessing that because these are much smaller than vases, bowls, plates and tea cups, they could actually bounce around within the sunken ship or once on the sea bed and not break just from their own weight. Picture one of these bouncing off your floor--while a porcelain tea cup would most likely not bounce, but break. Thousands of items were found broken. On larger pieces the company salvaging the cargo might have a conservator repair them, while many if not most salvaged pieces tend to be sold as found.

I personally happen to think these small pots are very cool! I also sold a small (not nearly as small as these) , lovely decorated bowl from the same ship previously. In the 1700s and 1800s--and in many cases far earlier--there was a very brisk trade throughout Southeast Asia, China and other countries. Blue paint is predominant and the hand painting varies from simple to elaborate. A beautiful scene on say a standard 6- to 8-inch vase could well over a thousand dollars. I spent a great deal of time over several months hunting for items for this sale and routinely passed on $1,500 tea pots bowls simply because I felt most of you would be more likely to be interested in the more affordable items .

In general, my nature and collecting and selling historical items for 45 years have all played a substantial role in presenting this sale. Many of my customers have purchased a variety of items rather than sticking only to one area such as coins, medals, world's fair items and so on. I long ago discovered that just because someone collected only in a specific area they still had interest in other historical items. I have sold customers a variety of items that are definitely far afield from their/my areas of major interst. This is the first sale in which I've focused entirely on one of those historical areas.

If you find these items of interest and appreciate their appearance and the history around the ships and discovery and would like to discuss the larger and more elaborate pieces please let me know. If you have some idea of the style, size and type of design you would like, I can go back to a couple of my sources to locate Asian items for you. It is interesting to me that many of the pieces originally were going from China and also coming to China. The trade between Asian countries was quite brisk over many centuries. Then later the markets expanded dramatically as western countries (both in Europe and North America) became aware of the beautiful Asian antiques.

As with everything in the sale, by all means, please ask if you have questions! I tend to include more information in my listings than typical sellers (who are NOT historians), and could easily add much more.