In early 1700s, an overloaded Chinese junk caught fire and sank. Like the ship lost in 1644 (see previous post), this was really bad news for exporter and importer alike!

The vessel had picked up its cargo from the porcelain factories of Canton and was en route to Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. Europeans were clamoring for tea along with pretty much anything porcelain.

In this shipwreck—called the Ca Mau (in reference to where it sank off Vietnam)—we are given an incredible look into how the Chinese were answering that demand.

Asian teapots

Most of the teapots found on the Ca Mau were still Asian in shape and decoration, as seen in the spherical teapot below.

Having spent several hundred years in the sea, this pot’s glaze is a bit dull—and it retains only its blue decoration, which is beneath the glaze. (This is why this porcelain is called “underglaze blue and white”—the blue and white were painted on the pot, and then the pot was glazed.)

Originally, however, this pot was much more colorful. Additional decoration had been painted on top of the glaze. The salt water, however, eroded away that paint, while the glaze protected the blue that was underneath. When the light hits the pot just right, you can still see the ghosting of the delicate decoration.

Morphing into European design

The Ca Mau—which sank sometime between 1723 and 1735—also vividly illustrates the evolution of western-style teapots. Even though the pots seem thoroughly Asian when you look at them superficially, their designs were changing to satisfy European use.

• the base of the spout now contains a web or strainer holes to hold back tea leaves so that they don’t clog in the spout (remember, at this time they were drinking whole leaf tea, so the leaves unfurled as they brewed)
• the lid now has a small perforation to release steam so that the hot water doesn’t bubble up into the spout

With everyone scrambling to get on the same page. . . .

In fact, by 1735, the strainer and steam vent are standard features. What the Ca Mau shows us, however, is that at the time that this ship sank, the Chinese were exporting teapots with and without these features,

indicating that tea vessels at this moment were on the cusp of modernization . . . [with] their variety confirm[ing] the challenge that the Chinese and the Europeans faced in their attempts to produce entirely functional and attractive tea-serving vessels for the West (Mueller 2009:6).

This variety of pots also strongly suggests that the ship had been loaded with porcelain that had been made at multiple factories. The artisans at each factory did their best to fulfill orders, which came from Europe and went through Chinese agents and included “drawings, prints, actual models, and linguistic interpreters” (Mueller 2009:8).

With so many entities involved—coupled with the problems of communication and economics at a time when travel between east and west took years!—it seems obvious that innovations would take awhile to become standard.

But in this shipwreck, we find evidence for that supposition. And in a tragic loss of people along with cargo and ship, a modicum of compensation.

Next up, tea and porcelain at the bottom of the sea.

Sources:
–Mueller, S. M. Elegance from the East: New Insights from Old Porcelain, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana. May 26–October 22, 2017. Tap here for more information about the exhibit, which is ongoing.
–Mueller, S. M. “Revelations of the Ca Mau shipwreck: Chinese export porcelain teapots on the cusp,” American Ceramic Journal, vol. XV. 2009.