CHINESE porcelain which lay aboard a merchant ship sunk in 1817 in the

Straits of Malacca, fetched more than #1m at a Christie's auction

yesterday in Amsterdam.

The 24,000 pieces of blue and white porcelain were salvaged from an

Indian ship which traded between the English East India Company and

Canton, south China, and each year carried cotton and opium to the

Chinese. Her wreck was discovered three years ago.

The sale was held on behalf of the Malaysian Government.