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Welcome to China Pottery
This site is about antique porcelain, archeology,
Chinese pottery, antique Chinese porcelain and
other Asian and Chinese porcelain.
Nanhai Marine Archaeology LLC
as agents for Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd.
Kuala Rompin. Malaysia.
At Nanhai Marine Archaeology we have discovered and excavated a number of ancient shipwrecks in the South China Sea together with Malaysian Department of Museums. In the progress of archaeology we have recovered antique porcelain (blue and white porcelain), Chinese pottery, antique Chinese porcelain and other Asian pottery. All these artifacts are centuries old and comes with absolute provenance and delivered with a Certificate of Authenticity.
To read more about our shipwrecks, click here
To preview our wreck-reports and books, click here
To read about our customer's testimonies, click here
To see our International museum displays, click here
To chat with our main researcher; Sten Sjostrand click here
CLICK ON BELOW IMAGES TO VIEW SHIPWRECK ARTIFACTS FOR SALE
Nanhai Marine Archaeology LLC as agents for Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd. Kuala Rompin. Malaysia.
As can be expected from genuine antique porcelain or other ancient pottery objects, not many remained intact or without damage over the centuries. This is very much true with shipwrecks and their cargo's of Chinese porcelain and other Chinese pottery. Not all but some of these pieces offered for sale on these sites are chipped, and sometimes repaired or showing (mended) hairline cracks. If, so, this is noted with each item.
This is not another site where antiquer dealers sell their wares for profit. Here you will buy directly from the excavators and thereby assist with continued archaeology and uncovering of our past.
To see PICTURES & VIDEO CLIPS, click here
Sten is a naval architect who spent more than thirty years in Southeast Asia, primarily designing and engineering marine structures. Sten has an academics enthusiasm for ancient ceramics and has written numbers of books and lectured extensively in the subject.
An champion sailor and diver he has discovered a number of shipwreck in the South China Sea and assisted museums world-wide to exhibit and to collect meaningful ceramic collections.
Sten's company; Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd.. works with Malaysia's Department of Museums and Antiquities and can therefore offer a legal Export Permit from the Department when so required.
Sten has located number of ancient kiln sites in Thailand and in China were his shipwreck ceramics was made centuries ago. He is therefore able to offer absolute provenance on all ceramics sold via Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd. and, with good concience sign every Certificate of Authenticity supplied with all artefacts.
Please email Sten with any questions you may have: Sten Sjostrand
Malaysia's Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage; Dato Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim:
I am extremely proud to have encouraged this project that throws light on Malaysia’s past as part of a worldwide trading network. Over the past dozen years maritime archaeology has added a huge volume of unexpected primary data and thousands of artefacts to our knowledge of history. The Wanli Shipwreck, the subject of this publication, (The Wanli Shipwreck and its Ceramic Cargo) is only the most recent site in a series of explorations of underwater sites off Malaysia. One after the other, nine sites have been investigated off the east coast of our peninsula since 1994. For this, we can thank Sten Sjostrand of Nanhai Marine Archaeology who systematically identified the sites and openly shared artefacts as well as knowledge. These sites join a list of other wreck sites investigated by various other entities in previous years.
My own personal visit to the waters above the Wanli ship’s wreckage in 2004 allowed me to appreciate the investigation even more fully. There is a strong element of adventure involved with finding old shipwrecks, but adventure can be empty and selfish if there are no higher concerns. In this case those higher concerns included a full, thorough documentation of the remains of the vessel and all its remaining cargo.
The maritime archaeology of Sten Sjostrand has led to major advances in the study of Asian trade and trade ceramics in Southeast Asia. His meticulous documentation of a series of nine shipwrecks from the 11th to 19th centuries reveals the early dominance of Chinese trade ceramics, a subsequent loss of the Chinese monopoly in the late 14th century when Southeast Asian ceramics entered the market, the basic parameters of the Ming gap shortages of the 14th-15th centuries, and a resurgence of Chinese wares in the 16th and 17th centuries. Just as important, Sjostrand freely shares the information from his discoveries. Researchers are welcome at his headquarters where he documents his finds and patiently answers the queries of others. A lifetime’s experience with the sea and sailing allows Sjostrand to bring new understanding to ancient ship construction, and his voluminous reading allows him to set the ships and their cargoes in historical perspective.
Dr. Roxanna M. Brown
Director.
Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum
Bangkok University, Rangsit campus
Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
The Minister and Sten Sjostrand discussing his maritime artifacts
Sten Sjostrand surfacing from the Wanli shipwreck site
The excavation required an intimate acquaintance with the sea and with the boats, ships and heavy equipment required for underwater exploration. Brave, experienced and safety-conscious divers were essential. Good planning coordinated the dive operations with weather and sea conditions. Tenacity carried the exploration forward through five diving seasons even when it became clear that most of the artefacts were damaged in what is theorized to have been an explosion that sank the vessel. An enterprise with only adventure diving or financial reward as its goal would have floundered.
I am happy to say that this project in underwater archaeology did not flounder. On the contrary, this publication offers a definitive view of a shipwreck on the seabed off Terengganu. The process of onboard artefact recording, dive planning and artefact preservation and following research in which the Maritime section of the Department of Museums and Antiquities fully shared, is brought together here as a thorough account of the finds and some essential analysis of their import. Of course, there will be future analysis and the Department of Museums is charged with keeping the nation’s share of the artefacts safe for future research.
Datuk Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim
Click here to add text.
CLICK ON ABOVE IMAGES TO VIEW ARTIFACTS FOR SALE
THE ONLY PLACE WHERE YOU CAN BE SURE TO BUY GENUINE ANTIQUES
Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd. was incorporated on the recommendation of the Malaysian authorities. This was done in order to formalize and to expand on the founder’s extensive knowledge of Asia’s ceramic developments and maritime trade.
The company’s researchers have been engaged in the search for historical shipwrecks for more than two decades with another decade researching maritime trade. Most of this work is concentrated to the South China Sea, a virtual highway for ancient shipping linking China to India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia in an extensive maritime trade system. This ancient trade started sometime around the 4th century and lasted well into the 19th century.
Following a successful shipwreck discovery, the company obtain a government permit to excavate the wreckage, and then carry out detailed marine archaeological procedures in recovering the artifacts, mapping the ship's remains and securing other data for future research. After each concluded project and following conservation of recovered artifacts, we search for and pinpoint ruined kiln sites and compare its wasters with the recovered ceramics until we are satisfied we located the place in which the shipwreck pottery was made centuries earlier.
As such we have precisely located a kiln sites in Sisatchanalai, northern Thailand in which our Royal Nanhai and the Nanyang shipwreck celadon ware was made around AD. 1380-1460. (See videos on: http://www.china-pottery.com/photopage.html ) Other kilns was located in Sukhothai where production wasters matched the fish and flower plates found on the Turiang and the Longquan shipwreck. These unique underglaze decorated wares was made at those exact kilns 600 years before we found them on the shipwrecks in Malaysia! Our latest shipwreck cargo; The Wanli Shipwreck, of Chinese blue and white porcelain, was likewise pinpointed to the Guangyinge kiln site in Jingdezhen, China. (See video on: http://www.china-pottery.com/photopage.html )
Our arrangement with the Malaysian authorities is such that we finance all operations and train young Malaysian nationals (on our initiative) in maritime archaeology and related research. After giving all unique and single artifacts and thirty percent of all recovered items to the National Museum (and assisting with exhibitions of artifacts from each project) we are allowed to sell our portion of the recovery to finance future projects. The findings from ongoing research and the compilation of reports, books and catalogues are available on these pages as well as on a separate Internet site.
Due to the unquestionable authenticity and precisely dated shipwreck pottery, many International Museums now display our shipwreck pieces as reference material. (See: http://www.mingwrecks.com/collections.html for a list of these musems).
The artifacts sold on this website are therefore legally and properly excavated and can be supplied with an export permit from the Department of Museum in Malaysia should this be required. This unique working arrangement makes us one of the few Internet sellers that sell from own excavation and issues a meaningful Certificate of Authenticity for every (numbered) piece sold.
So, if you are interested to purchase some of our Chinese porcelain and other shipwreck artifacts from the Song dynasty, Ming dynasty, or 19th century Qing porcelain or the famous Yixing teapots, you can rest assured that every piece is excavated through proper archaeology by our own staff. We do not sell anything that is not excavated by ourselves or properly recorded and researched before offered for sale so every piece comes with the “Best possible provenance”
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO EMAIL OUR PRINCIPAL RESEARCHER; Sten Sjostrand SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR POSSIBLE PURCHASE
Antique porcelain, old time pottery & Chinese porcelain
Here is a short section on 'fake' pottery
Archaeology, blue and white porcelain and Asian pottery
About Wanli porcelain, archaeology, blue and white porcelain and shipwrecks
17th century porcelain, Portuguese shipwreck & blue and white porcelain
Chinese porcelain, Portuguese shipwreck & blue and white porcelain
The Wanli catalogue and Chinese 17th century porcelain
Jingdezhen, the porcelain centre of the world
For more information about antique porcelain and Asian pottery
More old time pottery, Asian pottery and Chinese blue and white porcelain for sale
For Old time pottery, Asian pottery and 17th century ming porcelain
Chinese blue and white porcelain from the Ming dynasty for sale
Internet's cheapest antique gift wares
Buying antique celadon wares from the 15-16th century
To buy underglaze painted wares from the 14th to the 16th century
Chinese blue and white porcelain from the Ming dynasty
Antique pottery and porcelain at affordable prices
All about 17th century Chinese porcelain
Publications about shipwrecks, antique porcelain and Asian pottery
Affordable antique porcelain and pottery
17th century Chinese porcelain shard collections for sale
17th century Chinese porcelain bottles, kendis and gourd bottles for sale
Affordable antique porcelain spoons and other giftware
19th century Chinese Yixing teapots and teapot marks
View our museum collections of ancient porelain and pottery
About the Desaru (1830) shipwreck in the South China Sea
Pottery as found onboard our shipwrecks
About the Longquan (1400) shipwreck in South China Sea
Nanyang, a 14th century shipwreck loaded with Sisatchanalai celadon
About ancient pottery from shipwreck excavations
Royal Nanhai, a fully loaded shipwreck from the 15th century
All about 10 ancient shipwrecks in the South China Sea
Singtai, a 16th century shipwreck in the South China Sea
About Malaysia's oldest shipwreck. 11th century
Xuande, a 16th century shipwreck in the South China Sea
Shipwreck pottery from the 11th to the 19 th century
Early Chinese porcelain and pottery from the South China Sea shipwrecks
Here is a short section on 'fake' pottery
Archaeology, blue and white porcelain and Asian pottery
About Wanli porcelain, archaeology, blue and white porcelain and shipwrecks
17th century porcelain, Portuguese shipwreck & blue and white porcelain
Chinese porcelain, Portuguese shipwreck & blue and white porcelain
The Wanli catalogue and Chinese 17th century porcelain
Jingdezhen, the porcelain centre of the world
For more information about antique porcelain and Asian pottery
More old time pottery, Asian pottery and Chinese blue and white porcelain for sale
For Old time pottery, Asian pottery and 17th century ming porcelain
Chinese blue and white porcelain from the Ming dynasty for sale
Internet's cheapest antique gift wares
Buying antique celadon wares from the 15-16th century
To buy underglaze painted wares from the 14th to the 16th century
Chinese blue and white porcelain from the Ming dynasty
Antique pottery and porcelain at affordable prices
All about 17th century Chinese porcelain
Publications about shipwrecks, antique porcelain and Asian pottery
Affordable antique porcelain and pottery
17th century Chinese porcelain shard collections for sale
17th century Chinese porcelain bottles, kendis and gourd bottles for sale
Affordable antique porcelain spoons and other giftware
19th century Chinese Yixing teapots and teapot marks
View our museum collections of ancient porelain and pottery
About the Desaru (1830) shipwreck in the South China Sea
Pottery as found onboard our shipwrecks
About the Longquan (1400) shipwreck in South China Sea
Nanyang, a 14th century shipwreck loaded with Sisatchanalai celadon
About ancient pottery from shipwreck excavations
Royal Nanhai, a fully loaded shipwreck from the 15th century
All about 10 ancient shipwrecks in the South China Sea
Singtai, a 16th century shipwreck in the South China Sea
About Malaysia's oldest shipwreck. 11th century
Xuande, a 16th century shipwreck in the South China Sea
Shipwreck pottery from the 11th to the 19 th century
Early Chinese porcelain and pottery from the South China Sea shipwrecks
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