Cape Town - When 46 years ago, a beautiful but damaged Japanese porcelain vase caught Stephen Petersen’s eye while on a visit to his then girlfriend’s parents’ home, he had no idea the story of its provenance would launch him into a story spanning lives on three continents.
The imposing yet delicate vase – which his future parents-in-law had stored in a corner of their Sandvlei home – today occupies pride of place in the centre of Petersen’s lounge in his house in Kuils River, and it’s a conversation piece like no other.
Now a widower, retired toolmaker Petersen, 64, and his late wife Belinda’s uncle, Carl Willters, have spent many years digging into the story of the vase, which Belinda’s maternal great, great grandfather Paul Andries Braaf found while walking on the beach in 1870.
In 2011 Petersen met up with shipwreck salvage expert Charles Shapiro and told him the story of the vase, which his wife had since inherited from her mother and now stood in their home.
When Shapiro did some exploring of the area, he helped Petersen get in touch with the Maritime Museum, where an expert helped connect the dots between the vase and an American ship, The Benefactress, which sank off Strand Beach in 1870.
More research led to an 1870 edition of the Cape Argus which reported on the ship wreck.
Further perusal of the Cape Argus archives led to an advert for an auction set for December 3, 1870 wherein which Japanese porcelain from the shipwreck was to be sold to the highest bidder.
According to a clip from the Cape Argus at the time, The Benefactress was transporting a variety of goods, including pottery, from Yokohama in Japan to New York in the US.
As such, Petersen surmised that the vase had been among the things washed ashore from the wreck.
Petersen also discovered, through an advert in the Cape Argus for December 1870, that the ship’s porcelain cargo was intended for A.A. Vantine & Co, a business belonging to a wealthy New York merchant who travelled to Japan and China during the 19th century.
Petersen said he is writing a book about the adventure, but is also curious about what appears to be a seal mark in Japanese characters on the bottom of the vase and would be grateful if anyone with knowledge of such matters could get in touch with him on email at [email protected].
