Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Piece of Broken Tea Cup Foud. |
Yesterday I found the portion of the tea cup shown above. KangHsi porcelain was carried by 1715 Fleet ships and some valuable pieces have been found, but it is not easy to tell the difference between KangHsi porcelain and other blue and white porcelain made to mimic Chinese porcelain.
I've talked about KangXsi porcelain many times before. Here is one example.
Many shards are very easy to distinguish from Kang Hsi. Cheaper pottery will be thicker and the paste will be less white.
Kang Hsi will be thin, very white, and the surface coloring will not simply lie on the very surface. If you look at the edge of a shard, you can see that the coloring has depth and looks to penetrate into the paste.
Besides that, there is another obvious clue in the above photo. Do you know what it is?
It is porcelain, but it is not Kang Hsi. Kang Hsi cups, as is typical of Chinese tea cups, do not have handles.
It appears the first tea cups made their way to England from imports from China. These first tea cups were handle-less and were called tea bowls. And it was not until the year of 1700 did saucers appear. In about 1750 a man named Robert Adams inspired tea sets that the tea cups had handles. The English welcomed Mr. Adams designs because they thought that the tea bowls were way too messy, and that the English often would burn their hands on the tea bowls... (See 10d_0.pdf (byu.edu))
Here is another useful reference.
How to Identify Old Chinese Porcelain (archive.org)
That gives you makers marks, including the following mark for Kang Hsi.
When the sand is washing up keep your eyes open for other things that might also wash up.
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Yesterday I showed how much seagrass was piling up on Treasure Coast beaches. It appears we aren't alone.
The sargassum isn’t like typical seaweed. It forms miles out to sea, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. As it grows, it tangles upon itself and creates massive island-like structures that float west towards the Caribbean. Some of the masses have been recorded as 5km long.
At sea, they cause no problems and are actually massively beneficial for the ocean-based ecosystems. However, as they arrive on the coast they begin to cause problems for the tourist industry. As it floats in the shallow waters, the usually clear blue waters of the Caribbean are turned a murky brown. Some weaker swimmers have been known to get tangled in the seaweed too, and it can even cause rashes for those who touch it...
Thanks to Rick B. for that link.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |