Watch List notes:

Chinese rectangular "sycee" gold ingot number 53, 369 grams, 21K fine, marked with Chinese characters "yuan ji bao" ("gold ingot") on top along with "yuan" on bottom, ex-"Nanking Cargo" (1752), ex-Christie's (1986). About 3-1/8" x 1" x 1/2". Perhaps the most elusive of all shipwreck ingots despite the Christie's offering of over 126 of them on this wreck (among 147 listed on the original manifest of the Geldermalsen), the Chinese shoe-shaped "sycees" in gold are extremely rare, their existence nearly wiped out by meltage over the years, somewhat ironic since their original composition is melted-down foreign gold coins from their time, as the Chinese always preferred copper for daily exchange and used the gold only for large gifts or overseas payments, hence the need to store the gold in a compact and uniform state. Curiously, Christie's notes that the gold ingots from this wreck were not in the main cargo but a bit separated from it yet found all together, as if they were in the possession of a single passenger trying to get away! Like almost all the others, our bar bears on its lustrous top surface a central "double-gourd"-shaped cartouche with the Chinese letters "yuan ji" plus two peripheral square cartouches (one at each end) containing the Chinese letter "bao," one covered with white encrustation, the sides of the ingot narrowly sloping upward with brownish encrustation embedded, and the bottom with two lightly stamped Chinese characters "yuan" (one at each end), overall in superb (undamaged) condition and a lovely little display with great original auction packaging. From the "Nanking Cargo" (1752), with sticker #53, housed in a Christie's "Nanking Cargo" wooden box also marked with #53, with photo-certificate, pedigreed to the original Christie's (Amsterdam) auction of April-May 1986 (pp. 70-76), a hardbound copy of the catalog for which also accompanies this lot (with list of prices realized).


Estimate: 30000 - 60000 USD