Nanking cargo Christie’s 2 cups and saucers from the world famous wreck: The Geldermalsen. Soil find/wreckackge find As a pair it is a special acquisition on your collection. The shipwreck of the Geldermalsen was discovered in 1984. The ship's cargo was salvaged by Michael Hatcher from Britain. After 233 years, the porcelain was still intact. The tea, which had expanded due to being exposed to sea water, had coated the porcelain with a protective layer. The ironic thing is that the cases of porcelain were originally meant to protect the tea; they had to prevent that leaking water would make the valuable tea worthless. The porcelain was only of minor importance to the Dutch East India Company. Only one layer of cases with porcelain was allowed to be stowed in the ship, as opposed to seven layers of cases with tea. The cargo of Chinese porcelain that was salvaged consisted of over 160,000 objects, in blue and white. Part of the salvaged cargo of the Geldermalsen was auctioned at the Christie's auction house in Amsterdam in May 1986. The 160,000 pieces of porcelain, the gold and the utensils were sold for more than 37 million guilders. One of the cups has a hairline crack and a chip is missing. The other cup has a hairline crack at the bottom side, but this does not diminish the quality of the whole. Please view the photos. Both saucers are in good condition. Both saucers have the original Christie's sticker. Measurements of cups: diameter 6 cm plate: diameter 10.4 cm