2 Plates

[Lee Seng Kong]

Hi Peter,

Up-river in the state of Sarawak on the Borneo Island (KALIMANTANG), East Malaysia.
SABAH is to the north of SARAWAK, and the rest of the KALIMANTANG belongs to Indonesia.

I attached a photo of the Map of Sarawak showing the rivers.

In the local dialect, rivers are known as "BATANG"

Most of my Martaban Jars ( and jarlets) were collected from the long house scattered along Batang Tatau and Kemana in the district of Bintulu where I was involved in the construction of the MLNG Plant ( Malaysian Liquified Natural Gas Plant) in the early 1980s

There is a small town called Tatau on the Batang Tatau where there are some immigrant Chinese who settled there and set up sundry shops.

One shop occasionally butter-traded with the local natives for antiques in exchange for their produce  when the natives run out of cash.......some Chinese also bought over the native land when the natives accumulated IOUs which they could not pay up.

I bought some Qingbai, B & W, Celadon, Jars and brass gongs, cannons etc etc
from these shops also....apart from buying directly from the natives.

On the map it shows some excavation site .

This map is extracted from the Journal "CERAMICS IN THE SARAWAK MUSEUM" which serves as  a good reference book on antiques found in SARAWAK.

Other bigger towns that sell antiques are located in Kuching, Miri and Sibu, and practically all are owned by immigrant Chinese

In the late 1990s, I move to Sabah to follow up other construction Projects in that state.

It is in Sabah that I collected ship-wreck items.

Personally, I am from Kuala Lumpur in the state of Selangor , West Malaysia( Peninsular Malaysia), but I lived on the Borneo Island since early 1980s.

I am  most willing to share some info. on Chinese antiques found out- side China particularly, found on  the Borneo Island.