Indonesian Ceramic Shipwreck Vessel

Earth brown and a little battered, with tiny ears and a patient expression.

This shipwreck vessel is from Java Sea near Borneo, Indonesia, and dates to the 17th or 18th century. It is pottery. Wrecks such as the Turiang from about 1370, the Royal Nanhai from about 1460 and the Nanking cargo from about 1750 helped create shipwreck ceramics as a collecting category. Squat rounded jar in mottled brown with a thick rolled rim and small pierced lugs on the shoulder. The surface is rough and uneven, with darker patches, pale deposits and small nicks around the body. It is 7 inches wide, 7 deep, 7.5 high and 0.21 in diameter.

Weathered and unbothered, as good pots tend to be.