plates and jars - still stacked on top of one another in their shroud of slime - amazingly came into view on a video screen 68 meters above the seabed and in doing so, opened a new dimension to our existing knowledge of Asian maritime trade. When the over loaded junk went down, in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, the human loss could only have been enormous, but the half-millennium of silence that followed has miraculously transformed its cargo of pottery, fired in the kilns of Men and women from countries as scattered as Brunei, France, Australia, New Zealand, India and Holland, for three gruelling months, pitted their energy and skills, their dedication and their courage, to bring the sunken cargo to the surface....

shortly after his return to England the collection was forwarded. Despite
that the articles were for public exhibition and instruction, the Federal
authorities demanded duty upon them, and what was intended as a free gift
will reach the Museum at a cost of £14 odd. The articles were formally
presented to the chairman of the trustees of the Museum and Art Gallery
(Sir James Lee-Steere) yesterday, by Mr. J. Shorter, the Australian
representative of Doulton and Co. Sir James Lee-Steere, in reply, said he
was sure the public would very much appreciate the generosity of Messrs.
Doulton and Co., and he hoped that those of our young people who were of
an artistic frame of mind would benefit by being able to consult the
models of masters in the floral art.

The collection, which is value at £100, consists of a number of
representative pieces painted by leading decorative artists in England,
and includes, in addition, several novelties in the most improved
manufacture of chinaware. Perhaps the most interesting, if only from a
historic aspect, are a couple of small vessels manufactured according to a
process recently re-discovered in the western civilised countries, but
known to the Chinese before the birth of Christ. For richness of colour,
the “rouge flambe,” as it is called, is unsurpassable. Among the
collection are a number of epergnes , which display colours of gorgeous,
yet exquisitely blended, tints, plates inlaid with gold fretwork and
various pieces of great beauty of design, painted in orchids, poppies, and
roses. Several of the articles are unique in this State, alike for their
quality and the value of the class of goods which they represent. Six
hundred guineas is the price quoted for a dinner-set one of the plates of
which finds a place in the collection. “The original set,” remarked Mr.
Shorter to his company yesterday, “was sold to an American millionaire for
600 guineas. Generally, the King is content with plate costing 17s. 6d a
piece, but the average American millionaire will not look at anything
below five guineas. And he would no more think of dining twice in
succession off the same set than he would of appearing two days running in
New York with the same suit of clothes.”

Questioned by a “West Australian” reporter as to the possibility of a
pottery trade being established in this State, Mr. Bernard Woodward,
Curator of the Museum, said that there was an abundance of real white
china clay in the Darling Ranges, eminently suitable for he making of
pottery of the best class....