Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
People find blue and white shards on the Treasure Coast 1715 wreck beaches and wonder if they might be Kang Xsi. I get a lot of questions about that and in the past have posted some information about Kang Xsi, including tips on identification. Below are two intact Kang Xsi (various spellings) cups that sold in the recent Sedwick auction for $700 plus buyer's premium. We usually just find shards on the beach, but they can be worth a little too, especially when attractively mounted.
Here is the Sedwick lot description for the two cups.
Intact blue-on-white Chinese porcelain cup with handle, Kangxi period, ex-HMS Winchester (1695), very rare provenance and condition. 72 grams, 2-1/2" tall and 2-1/8" in diameter. A lovely little piece with nothing missing (the handle manufactured separately and applied or possibly re-applied after glazing), the glaze worn away but with clear flowers in vase on balcony design on exterior, highly desirable as the only intact specimen found on this rare wreck. From the HMS Winchester (1695), with photo-certificate.
I found a good book with a lot of information on Chinese porcelain and the Manila galleons. The title is Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaports and Early Maritime Globalization, Part II.
That resource contains tons of photos, including the photo below of a wreck still containing a cargo of Chinese porcelain.
 |
| Source: Academia.edu link below. |
That photo reminds me of the fellow who found a stack of plates recently exposed by new erosion to a wreck beach and didn't pay much attention to them. When he learned they could be valuable, he returned to find them, but couldn't.
During the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, the Spanish navigators established and operated the Manila Galleon maritime route which connected East Asia and New Spain in the American continent. The galleons sailed across the Pacific via the hub seaports and trade centers of Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in Mexico, forming a prosperous sea route for more than 250 years. This pioneering navigation of pan-Pacific regions promoted early global maritime trade as a new maritime Silk Road between the East and the West...
The Spanish conquest of the Philippines began with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in March 1521 (Pigafetta 1969). When Magellan was killed in April 27, 1521 by a local chieftain in the island of Mactan by the name of Lapu-lapu, the remaining Spaniards hastily left and went back to Spain. It was not until exactly 44 years after the death of Magellan that another expedition arrived in the Philippines (Cebu) under the command of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, with specific instructions from the King of Spain to find the return route from Manila to New Spain (present day Mexico). The discovery of the tornaviaje or the return journey from Manila to Acapulco by Fray Andres de Urdaneta, Legaspi’s pilot and navigator in 1565 completed the maritime route that was later utilized by the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade (Schurz 1985). The first few galleons left from Cebu until Legaspi transferred his capital to Manila, leaving Cebu in economic disarray (Fajardo 2018). The galleon trade represents one of the earliest manifestations of economic globalization where Asia, the Americas and Europe were linked together through maritime high ways.
The Galleon trade fostered both economic and cultural exchanges between the Philippines and Mexico, which can be observed up to this day (INQUIRER.net US Bureau 2017). The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade route was operational for 250 years (1565–1815) where merchant ships traversed more than 18,000 km across the Pacific Ocean from Manila to Acapulco and vice versa. At the western terminus, Manila became the world’s premier entrepot during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that linked peoples, cultures and material goods between Asia and the Americas (Schurz 1985; Fish 2011)...
I highly recommend reading this lengthy document.
Here is the link.
https://www.academia.edu/41712660/The_Chinese_Porcelain_from_the_Port_of_San_Blas_Mexico?email_work_card=title
Not only did the Manila galleons distribute items that ended up on the 1715 Fleet and Treasure Coast beaches, but Spanish colonial items also ended up in the ports of Asia.
 |
| Source: See academia.edu link above. |
---
In the past I received questions about how scallops or cusps are formed on the beach. Here is an illustration that explains that.
---
Gold has been doing well.
The stock market is up this morning, which is really a statement for all of the positive things going on with economy, space exploration and pharmaceutical industry.
The surf is small today but will increase tomorrow. The wind has already changed.
 |
| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
TreasureGuide@comcast.net