The samples recovered from the shipwrecked cargo are exclusively Chinese ceramics, in the main blue and white porcelain, and all assessed by experts to be excellent examples of Kangxi pottery. Their quality indicates that they were manufactured in the famous porcelain centre of Jingdezhen, in the Jiangxi Province. Jingdezhen kilns have made porcelain over two millennia, beginning in the Han Dynasty period. Blue and white porcelain was the most famous product of Jingdezhen, and reached the height of its technical excellence in the early Qing Dynasty. The distinctive, high quality cobalt blue colouring of the Kangxi period is referred to as ‘gem blue’ or ‘kingfisher blue’, and is purer and brighter than that of Ming Dynasty wares.