Shipwreck Sale: Magnificent 19th Century Hand-Painted Lidded Box

We acquired this amazing hand-painted piece along with shipwreck discoveries but were unable to confirm where it was salvaged. This is one of the more elaborately painted pieces in this sale and it has no visible flaws anywhere. Like many of the items acquired I felt that the most important criteria was quality as well as where/from what ship it was salvaged when known.

Many Asian shipwrecks that didn't yield massive numbers of items have mostly gone unnamed. In this sale there are items primarily from well-known shipwrecks (well-known varying dramatically from one to another as well).

For example, Included are pieces from EL CAZADOR, one of the most famous of the ships lost in the western hemisphere and as well as many Asian pieces. The former was one of the "treasure ships" carrying massive amounts of coins, while many of the latter are well knoen for the caches of porcelain, glazed and various household dishes. These include the DESARU, TEK SING, HOI AN and others. The ADMIRAL GARDNER is one of the Asian shipwrecks noted for its tens of thousands of copper coins recovered from the vessel.

I have included basic information known about the various shipwrecks along with whatever details are known or that I have discovered. I didn't hesitate at all to purchase this pieces despite it having no provenance while most of the others were identified from the ship where the pieces were found.

The quality of the painting is superb and I would not be surprised if a buyer might chose to use this rather than putting it on display. I found it interesting that while the glaze and overall finish quickly identtified it as similar to other items of the period, one characteristic that stands out is that the rim appears to be metal (copper most likely) rather than painted as one would expect.

The overall diameter is about 3 inches and it stands around half that figure. The two photos that include the ruler gives you a sense of the overall size when viewed with the lid on versus just the bowl portion shown upside down.

As I've noted with some of the fragile pieces, I have estimated postage based on size as well as weight, and specific requirements based on fragility. The software used for this sale allows me to estimate the postage when it ships alone or is combined with other items. The latter is often very difficult to estimate ahead of time because we have no idea about what pieces might be shipped together. If the pre-sale estimate varies once items are combined for shipping to the same buyer, I will refund any overage. If I've underestimated the total I will simply absorb that added cost.