Q On a recent trip to the Philippines, I came across 'Chinese shipwreck' ceramics. What are they doing there? Where did they come from? Are they worth collecting?
WHAT THE EXPERT SAYS: 'In the past six years, three important shipwrecks of the middle Ming period have been discovered in Philippine waters,' says Cynthia Ongpin Valdes, an independent researcher who has been involved in ceramics studies for more than 20 years. They are the Lena Shoal wreck (discovered in 1997); the Santa Cruz wreck (discovered in 2000); and the Gujangan or Luuc wreck (discovered in 1998).
The former president of the Oriental Ceramics Society of the Philippines elaborates: 'The first two have been extensively documented through a joint effort between the Philippine National Museum and the Far Eastern Foundation for Nautical Archaeology. The Gujangan shipwreck was extensively looted, but shards and sundry pieces as well as wood specimens ... have been recovered by the navy.'
THE BIG BLUE AND WHITE: The surviving cargo includes beads, glass and ceramics from other parts of Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Vietnam, though the majority is Ming blue and white ceramics. 'The bulk that survived bears decorations and characteristics associated with the reign of the emperor Hongzhi (1488 to 1505),' Valdes says.
'We can safely say the Chinese ceramics all came from kilns south of the Yangtze, possibly for smuggling. Many of the fine blue and white pieces came from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, the centre of ceramic production. Fujian and Guangdong also made them, but not as fine.'
Among the salvaged pieces is a very unusual Ming blue and white garden seat that is now housed at the Museum of Art at Chinese University in Hong Kong.
Why were they there in the first place? 'The first Ming emperor, Hong Wu, imposed a trade ban and decreed that only tributary trade, a Chinese practice dating back to the Han dynasty, could be practised.' But the Chinese found other ways to trade. 'Towards the end of the 15th century, a wealthy class emerged south of the Yangtze that could afford to build ships and engage in illegal trade.