Posted: 25 September 2023
Category: Company News
Nanking Cargo surfaces in Sussex
We were recently called in to value the contents of a large country house in Mid Sussex and amongst the various antiques was a collection of Chinese Qianlong blue and white porcelain from the 18th century.
These standard pieces of porcelain have an enhanced value because they are from the famous Nanking Cargo. A treasure trove discovered in the China Seas of the shipwrecked Dutch East India Company vessel The Geldermalsen. An immense cargo ship laden with tea, porcelain gold bars and textiles, en route to Holland from Canton, that ran aground on a reef on the 3rd January 1752.
In 1985 a team of divers discovered the wreck and recovered 150,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain and 125 pure gold ingots.
They were auctioned by Christie’s Amsterdam in 1986 over a period of 5 days with a team of auctioneers working in relays. Approximately 20,000 people attended the auction, as there was no online bidding platforms in those days, and my clients were amongst them.
They purchased a number of lots including two lots of a dozen plates, a number of different sized tea bowls and a teapot.
The auction raised $15.3m, but in terms of shipwreck treasure this figure is dwarfed by the suggested value for the treasure discovered at the wreck site of the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de Atochawhich sank off the Florida Keys in 1622. The estimated value of this haul is put at $400m.
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