San Diego shipwreck ceramic pouring vessels
This week on #MaritimeMonday highlights the ceramic pouring vessels recovered from the San Diego shipwreck. San Diego was a merchant vessel turned flagship of a Spanish naval fleet that engaged 3 Dutch ships off the shores of Fortune Island in Batangas Province on 14 December 1600. After a naval skirmish with the Dutch flagship Mauritius, San Diego sunk along with more than 350 people and all of its cargo. Many of the sunken vessel’s archaeological objects have been featured in previous #MaritimeMonday posts. For more information about the vessel and its story, please see https://tinyurl.com/SagaOfTheSanDiego.
The vessel was finally found in 1991 after months of electronic search using sonar and magnetometers in the area between Fortune Island and Nasugbu. Excavation activities were carried out in 1992 and 1993 by the combined efforts of the #NationalMuseumPH and the World Wide First, a research outfit headed by Franck Goddio. The lower hull of the vessel was relatively intact along with more than 34,000 various archaeological specimens including ceramics, metal, glass, and wooden objects along with floral and faunal remains.
Among the ceramic inventory were limited amounts of Chinese blue and white porcelain that are classified as pouring vessels. These include bottles, kendi, and a water dropper. They were produced in the kilns of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, and considered high-quality pieces. Their presence in the vessel can be attributed to the Spanish nobles and the ship officers.
The bottle collection appear in a great diversity of forms and represented the most complete collection of Wanli period (1573–1620) ceramics found in any archaeological sites. Some shapes appear as a sort of flask or bottle for alcoholic beverages. They have globular or pear-shaped bodies with narrow, cylindrical necks. There are double gourd bottles decorated with ducks in the water, aquatic plants with wide leaves but without any surrounding water theme, making it appear to be floating in mid-air. The bottles may have been paired with Mexican silver plates and reserved for ship officers and other Spanish nobles who were onboard.
A kendi is a drinking gourd used to drink without touching the lips of the bottle. The San Diego kendi appears in the shape of an elephant with a carpet decorated with a motif of shells, painted in blue underglaze. Its tall, slender neck opens in a corolla or ends in a molded top.
A singular find is a water dropper is a small container used to dilute ink. Its shape is similar to eggplant with a lizard hanging near the opening. This type of item is considered a tool reserved for scholars and may have been used by an Asian since they were functionally worthless to Europeans.
Your #NationalMuseumPH is now open to the public. Please visit the 300 Years of Maritime Trade in the Philippines exhibit located at the 2nd floor hallway gallery of the National Museum of Anthropology.
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Text and poster by the Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Division
© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines
