antique Vietnamese bowls, 15th century, Hoi An

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antique Vietnamese bowls, 15th century, Hoi An :
$250.00

Back in the early 1990\'s a Vietnamese fisherman snagged his fishing net on the bottom of the \"Dragon Sea\" off the north Eastern coast of Vietnam. When he was able to recover his nets he found pottery remnants caught in them. More fisherman from his village of Hoi An plied these waters dropping their nets down 250\' to thebottom, dredging the sea bed and recovering more pottery pieces and fragments and selling them at the simple markets in their village. However, the secret got out after a few Japanese businessmen trying to sneak some of the pottery out of the country got caught by airport security. The wares were recognized by the Vietnamese government as 15th century in origin, probably from the Red River Delta region that has a centuries long tradition of making ceramics. During the Ming Dynasty in China, the Emperors declared that their wares were no longer to be sold to the barbarian countries of the world that had been trading with China for many decades or more (this referred to the British, Portugese, Dutch, Spanish and other Western cultures). The Vietnamese capitalized on this great opportunity to sell their blue/white ceramics to the eager Western markets. Ceramics from this period have been found anywhere from the Phillipines to India to Africa and on to Europe. Areas like the Red River Delta had a local market in Southeast Asia but now could see selling their wares to an even wider market. When the archaeological evidence of the wreck was salvaged and examined it was determined that this wreck found off of Hoi An was very likely a Cambodian trader who left well into the typhoon season, got caught in a bad storm and tried to return to Hoi An, sinking in the deep, dangerous waters off the coast. Over 150,000 pieces have been recovered from the historic wreck giving the world a better understanding of Vietnamese ceramics production during the 15th century. The high cost of the dangerous recovery of the wreck\'s contents required that a majority of the objects be sold at sale. Vietnam was given first choice of the rarest and most unique items and up to about 10% of the haul for their archives and cultural and archaeological research. I bought 35 items at the original sale at Butterfield\'s sale House in California. These are my last two pieces. I assume that these are food/rice bowls. Remember, these sat on the bottom of the South China Sea for over 500 years! These bowls measure about 5 1/2\" and 5\" in diameter, respectively. They are in very good condition considering where they lived for so long. Each has the original Butterfield\'s Hoi An Hoard sticker from that sale that also notes the organization that performed the recovery (Saga) and the original inventory number. Remember, also, that these were made at the same time that China was producing their famous Ming wares. Guaranteed as represented. I think that I still have a copy of the original sale catalog where I might be able to reference more info.