Page 231 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

12 Clues to Internationalism in the Manila Galleon Wreck … 203

Fig. 12.19 Zhangzhou
ceramic ware featuring a
black-faced spoonbill bird

Fig. 12.20 Jindezhen
ceramic ware phoenix plate

In contrast, many are of much higher quality. A notable !nd is an incompletely !red
plate (Fig. 12.21) which suggests that imperfect products may have been shipped
overseas rather than discarded.
The market for a bowl depicting a Chinese folk tale seems obvious: overseas
Chinese (Fig. 12.22). A formal landscape—the garden of Xi Wang Mu, the Queen
Mother of the Western Paradise—with fences, a stylized peach tree, and a peony
flower, is the setting for two monkeys: one mischievously leaping into the air to
distract the gods while his comrade surreptitiously climbs the tree to steal the
peaches of immortality. What appear to be wasps’ nests hang from the tree limbs on
either side, possibly as a deterrent to those who would steal the peaches.