This large dinner dish painted with pavilions in a river landscape were salvaged from the Geldermalsen shipwreck. The Geldermalsen, owned by the Dutch East India Company, sank on her homeward journey from China in 1752. The recovered cargo of more than 150,000 pieces of porcelain shows the demand for mass-produced Chinese wares for the European markets at the time. Apart from dishes of different sizes, there were teapots, tea cups, bowls and beer mugs. Although porcelain formed a major part of the cargo bound for Holland, the most profitable item on the Geldermalsen was actually tea. It has been estimated that the tea, weighing close to 700,000 pounds or 300 tonnes, would have fetched a price ten times higher than the porcelain it carried.
