SUNKEN TREASURE AND HIP-HOP MAKE EBAY $TICKY
About five hundred years ago, a large ship set sail from a port in Vietnam, after loading in a cargo of precious blue-and-white ceramic ware that had been sent downriver from the towns of Chu Dao and My Xa-- towns which, at the time, since Ming China had closed its ports and imposed limits on its own ceramics industry, were home to some of the most important potteries in Southeast Asia. Scholars say the ship was probably Thai, one of many foreign ships that came calling for such cargo. Travelling southward along the coast, the ship sank, probably in a storm.
In 1993, the shipwreck was found by a fishing boat from the nearby town of Hoi An. Soon afterward, a massive marine archaeology expedition was mounted by the Vietnamese government, with the participation of Oxford University and salvage companies from both Vietnam and Malaysia. More than 150,000 porcelain vessels were salvaged-- a trove now known as the Hoi An Hoard. The most important pieces were given to the National History Museum in Hanoi, and 10% of the rest of the cargo was donated to 100 regional Vietnamese museums. The remaining lot went on the block a few days ago at Butterfields Auctioneers in San Francisco and you can bid on it-- welcome to the 21st century!-- via eBay.
A three-day live auction of the Hoi An Hoard ends today. Hours permitting, you can still bid live and in real time at www.ebay.com. Thereafter, items from the hoard will be auctioned online. Just check eBay's "Great Collections" section for details.
"The material is very compelling-- it speaks beyond its culture," says Dessa Goddard, Butterfields' Director of Asian Works of Art. "The craftsmanship is superb-- the drawing, the excitement and movement of the design are all exceptional. This has been an esoteric collecting field until now, but it is so readily accessible and delightful, and the price points are accessible."
(FYI, EBay bought Butterfields in 1999. And in case you didn't know how friendly archaeology, retail sales, and entertainment have gotten with each other, there was last month's hour-long show on the Learning Channel about the Hoi An Hoard, which did nothing to hurt the auction's prospects for success.)
Now, we couldn't be telling you this unless the Hoi An ceramics were incredibly beautiful, which they are, and unless there were a ton of other great stuff at eBay, too. We're big fans. A recent search there turned up 570 items under "hip hop" and "hip-hop"-- and we know you'd also be interested in the electronics, collectibles, old vinyl, sports memorabilia, and other funky material available at the site, too. (A Platform promotional t-shirt, limited edition, distributed last summer for free at a music event in Brooklyn, recently sold there for a whopping $21!) Funny how
it works: once you're poking around eBay for stuff you want, you start thinking about other stuff you like, and then it's hard to stop-- which accounts for the site's stratospherically high "stickiness quotient" (how long a viewer stays on the site) and those 15 million-and-counting registered users.
In 1993, the shipwreck was found by a fishing boat from the nearby town of Hoi An. Soon afterward, a massive marine archaeology expedition was mounted by the Vietnamese government, with the participation of Oxford University and salvage companies from both Vietnam and Malaysia. More than 150,000 porcelain vessels were salvaged-- a trove now known as the Hoi An Hoard. The most important pieces were given to the National History Museum in Hanoi, and 10% of the rest of the cargo was donated to 100 regional Vietnamese museums. The remaining lot went on the block a few days ago at Butterfields Auctioneers in San Francisco and you can bid on it-- welcome to the 21st century!-- via eBay.
A three-day live auction of the Hoi An Hoard ends today. Hours permitting, you can still bid live and in real time at www.ebay.com. Thereafter, items from the hoard will be auctioned online. Just check eBay's "Great Collections" section for details.
"The material is very compelling-- it speaks beyond its culture," says Dessa Goddard, Butterfields' Director of Asian Works of Art. "The craftsmanship is superb-- the drawing, the excitement and movement of the design are all exceptional. This has been an esoteric collecting field until now, but it is so readily accessible and delightful, and the price points are accessible."
(FYI, EBay bought Butterfields in 1999. And in case you didn't know how friendly archaeology, retail sales, and entertainment have gotten with each other, there was last month's hour-long show on the Learning Channel about the Hoi An Hoard, which did nothing to hurt the auction's prospects for success.)
Now, we couldn't be telling you this unless the Hoi An ceramics were incredibly beautiful, which they are, and unless there were a ton of other great stuff at eBay, too. We're big fans. A recent search there turned up 570 items under "hip hop" and "hip-hop"-- and we know you'd also be interested in the electronics, collectibles, old vinyl, sports memorabilia, and other funky material available at the site, too. (A Platform promotional t-shirt, limited edition, distributed last summer for free at a music event in Brooklyn, recently sold there for a whopping $21!) Funny how
it works: once you're poking around eBay for stuff you want, you start thinking about other stuff you like, and then it's hard to stop-- which accounts for the site's stratospherically high "stickiness quotient" (how long a viewer stays on the site) and those 15 million-and-counting registered users.
posted by Lucia Toledo at 9:19 AM
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