Accession Number

1986.008.0897a

Creation Date

circa 1620

Description

In 1564, Spanish ships crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico and established a colony at Manila. This outpost gave Spain direct access to highly desired Asian goods. For the next 250 years, a large amount of silk, spices, jewelry, and porcelain was carried across the Pacific Ocean, taken overland across Mexico to the Caribbean, and then shipped to Spain. A small amount of blue-on-white Chinese porcelain was found on the wreck of the 1622 galleon Santa Margarita. The small number of fragments recovered from the wreck suggest the porcelain vessels on the Margarita were personal possessions and not a cargo.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023): N/A
Object Caption (2023):

Tableware Fragments
Porcelain (China, Ming Dynasty, c.1600)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0812a-e, 1986.0008.0897a-c

The secret of making porcelain was closely guarded by the Chinese. Europeans could not produce it, and imports were so prized that the king of Spain created a collection of the finest pieces. It would have been carried on the Manila galleons that traded in the Pacific before being loaded aboard the Santa Margarita.