MARKED DOWN: Unusual Hoi An Shipwreck Glazed Vase/Pot with Green-Brown Paint

Like the following item in this store, this was one of two late "finds" after the shipwreck sale had been underway for 11 days--and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase and offer these two very scarce items.

This pot is much different than the several Hoi An pieces in this sale, specifically because of the unusual color of the paint. All other Hoi An pieces have the very distinctive blue highlight colors found on all Asian artifacts of the period.

The Hoi An wreckage produced thousands of items and it was done under the scrutiny of the Vietenam government; the ship was Vietnamese and the tens of thousands of pots on it when it went down had been made at kilns famous for the quality of their work. Searchers not only worked years to excavate, uncover and research the pots strewn around the sea bed and in the remnants of the ship, but they took their treasure hunting inland to look at the long abandoned kiln site.

They found a variety of broken pots and shards identical to what was found on the sea floor.

This pot has a very distinctive green-brown color as you can see. Since the painting was beneath the glaze it seems highly unlikely that the salt water could have sufficiently altered the color even after more than two centuries. The designs on the three-inch-tall pot or vase probably was done with this color as it doesn't seem likely that any blue would turn this color; perhaps if there was blue and yellow present that might have turned green....but such an "if" is too broad and wouldn't have occured just because of the salt water.

You will note the bottom of the pot with the Hoi An "hoard" sticker with its assigned number. The Vietnamese government required a number of any unique rare designs be given to the country's museums, and also that a number of examples of the less rare pieces were also provided. Perhaps as much a 20-25% of the find ended up in the control fo the government on behalf of Vietnamese museums. Still, the group who both discovered and salvaged the shipwreck still had a tremendous volume left to them for sale. Many were sold as is, broken or with no damage, and others had restoration work done prior to selling.

This glazed and green-brown pot is the only one we were fortunate to acquire with the unusual design color.

This sized pot is also unusual from the shipwreck, falling in size between the "minis" we have listed and the largest unglazed pot offered in the next listing.