In late December 1751 a huge cargo vessel belonging to the Dutch East India Company left port at Canton, China. The Geldermalsen was loaded with tea, textiles, gold pieces and almost 250,000 items of porcelain. Tragically, for 80 members of the crew, just two weeks after leaving port, The Geldermalsen struck a reef and sank; not only was there a terrible loss of life but the whole cargo disappeared too.

In 1986, after months of searching, a maritime salvager called Michael Hatcher discovered The Geldermalsen wreck under tons of silt and coral and lifted out not only much of the gold but also a huge quantity of porcelain. A five-day sale by Christies, in 1986 knocked down nearly 3000 Lots and raised $20 million from what had become known as the Nanking Cargo.

Blue and white decorated pottery imported to Europe from China had become an extraordinarily important symbol of wealth in the late 17th century and by the time of the ‘Nanking’ disaster thousands of tons of porcelain, much of it blue and white like the tea bowl and saucer in the image were being imported to Britain and other western countries. By the end of the 18th century British companies had caught on to the trend and were producing their own version of blue and white. Most of this tableware was transfer printed and although it looked almost identical to the genuine Chinese imports it could be bought at a fraction of the price. This was blue and white democracy!!

Blue and white pottery was, forever to remain a stalwart of the British dining table; the iconic ‘Italian’ designed tableware, introduced by Josiah Spode II some 200 years ago, is still so very popular in 2025.

Many British potteries in the 19th century went on to produce - nay ‘knock out’ - tons of blue and white ceramic in all shapes and sizes. Here is a wonderfully Chinese-looking tureen that was made in around 1890 by Booths, a Staffordshire company. I am convinced that someone had their tongue in the cheek when they called the design ‘Ming’!