The Sunken Banquet

A maker’s mark beneath a plate. A salt stain on a mug. A porcelain fragment with part of its pattern still visible. Everyday objects can hold the details that bring maritime history closer.

The Sunken Banquet is a digital archive for documenting shipboard ceramics. From simple sailors’ tableware to fine porcelain associated with ocean liners, it gives collectors and maritime history enthusiasts a place to keep objects, photographs and their histories together.

Build a record around each piece

Follow four stages to catalogue an object. Give it an identifier and assign it to an album for kettles, mugs, plates, bowls, decanters or other pieces. Record its presumed era, ceramic body and state of preservation, including intact, chipped, salt-stained, fragmentary or restored examples.

Connect the object to life aboard

Add the ship or wreck associated with the piece and the setting it served, such as a deck, saloon or galley. Record glaze and decoration, from cobalt and transferware to gilt rims or plain surfaces. Keep provenance notes, recovery circumstances and factory marks alongside archival photographs.

Look closer with Analytical Lens

Move the lens across a photograph to examine a particular detail. Capture a fragment, describe what you see and save it for later reference. A small section of decoration or a surviving mark can have its own place within the object’s record.

Annotate with Archival Drawing

Work directly over the photograph with diameter lines and pinned notes. Use the Texture–Structure control to explore the image’s appearance and document details of its form. Dimension annotations help you record measurements you have established for the object.

Explore the collection through Ledger

Review totals for catalogued pieces and recorded wrecks. Explore preservation states with the interactive ring and see how the collection is organised across albums.

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