Cluster of porcelain fragments and coral from a shipwreck

ca. 17th or early 18th century

This 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.

Pocillopora coral, porcelain, and Melithaeidae (Gorgonacea) coral

8 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 7 in. (22.2 x 21.6 x 17.8 cm)

Gift of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska

2014.18

Photo: Nathaniel Willson

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Chronicles of a Global East, Oct. 20, 2022 - Oct. 22, 2023.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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