Rare Tek Sing Chinese Shipwreck Cargo Pipe Damper

Description: Rare Tek Sing Chinese Shipwreck Cargo Pipe Damper An exceptionally rare opium pipe damper with incised floral motifs from the Tek Sing, one of only a small number that were salvaged. Measures 5cm tall with a diameter of 5cm, Nagal Auction label to side. There is surface wear and degradation following the long immersion in sea water but the damper is free from chips, cracks and restoration . Please see all photos for confirmation of condition. The Tek SingThe Tek Sing (Chinese, "True Star") was a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk which sank on February 6, 1822 in an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals. The vessel was 50 meters in length, 10 meters wide and weighed about a thousand tons. Its tallest mast was estimated to be 90 feet in height. The ship was manned by a crew of 200 and had approx. 1600 passengers. The great loss of life associated with the sinking has led to the Tek Sing being referred to in modern times as the "Titanic of the East". Sailing from the port of Amoy (now Xiamen in Fujian, People's Republic of China), the Tek Sing was bound for Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia) laden with a large cargo of porcelain goods and 1600 Chinese immigrants. After a month of sailing, the Tek Sing's captain, Io Tauko, decided to attempt a shortcut through the Gaspar Strait between the Bangka-Belitung Islands, and ran aground on a reef. The junk sank in about 30m (100 feet) of water. On May 12, 1999, Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of the Tek Sing in an area of the South China Sea north of Java, east of Sumatra and south of Singapore. His crew raised about 350,000 pieces of the ship's cargo in what is described as the largest sunken cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. The Tek Sing's recovered cargo was auctioned by Nagal auctioneers in Stuttgart in November 2000.

Price: 400 GBP

Location: Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

End Time: 2024-10-24T19:31:04.000Z

Shipping Cost: 65.37 GBP