ABSTRACT
This chapter on the affects and emotions of doubt and wonder in the museum begins with a curatorial dilemma. Whilst researching objects to include in the exhibition on coral in nature and culture, which I organized at the Manchester Museum in 2013/14, I happened upon an intriguing item in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a so-called ‘sea sculpture’ (Figure 9.1). The collections database provided the object’s main coordinates and a brief description of its provenance and history:
This object was salvaged from the wreck of a trade ship thought to be a Chinese junk, dating to approximately 1725 … The wreck was discovered off the Southern coast of Vietnam in 1998 near Ca Mau and is now commonly referred to as the Ca Mau wreck. The ship was carrying Chinese porcelain of various designs for export to South Asia and Europe … This object as it exists now as a so-called ‘sea sculpture’ was created through accident and nature. A number of underglaze blue decorated porcelain pieces were fused together by a re on board the ship, which was possibly the cause of the wreck. The corals and shells grew on these fused pieces whilst they lay on the seabed. The component pieces of porcelain were mass produced in Jingdezhen, Southern China in the early 18th century.1
