Cluster of porcelain fragments and coral from a shipwreck
Dateca. 17th or early 18th century
Label TextThis artifact was found by a fishing vessel and then confiscated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska. The location of the shipwreck where it came from is unknown. The ceramics encased by coral and ocean sediment is known in the West as “Batavian ware,” after the capital of the Dutch East Indies (1800–1949) in present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. A work of contemporary art by Michelle Erickson displayed nearby meditates on this subject of the maritime porcelain trade.
Object number2014.18
Photo CreditPhoto: Nathaniel Willson
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Chronicles of a Global East, Oct. 20, 2022 - Oct. 22, 2023.Credit LineGift of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska
Dimensions8 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 7 in. (22.2 x 21.6 x 17.8 cm)
MediumPocillopora coral, porcelain, and Melithaeidae (Gorgonacea) coral
mid 19th century
Object number: 33.1132
Nepalese
late 19th to early 20th century
Object number: 33.704
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