Late Ming, Chongzhen 1628-1644

This porcelain dish was found with other Chinese porcelain during an excavation on the site of 43-45 Narrow Street, Limehouse, London. It is a kraakware dish with a deer design and is probably a porduct of the Imperial Jingdezhen centre, but from a second-class kiln. It is a very rare find in London but is similar to Chinese kraak porcelain found on the wreck of a Chinese junk which foundered off the coast of Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) in the South China Sea around 1646. The wreck was discovered by Captain Michael Hatcher in 1983 and over 250,000 fragments of Chinese porcelain cargo was recovered. The ship was almost certainly sailing from China to the Dutch base at Batavia from where cargoes were purchased and transhipped to Dutch East Indiamen for their journey to Europe.