SHANGHAI, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The China Maritime Museum in Shanghai on Sunday received a donation of 100 pieces of ancient porcelain from the Tek Sing, a merchant ship sunken in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The huge ship loaded with silk and porcelain from China sank in waters off Indonesia in 1822 and was salvaged by a commercial team in 1999, and the artifacts were then put up for auction.

Waterside Culture Group, the private Chinese firm that donated the porcelain wares manufactured at the Dehua kilns in east China's Fujian Province, purchased more than 100,000 of the artifacts from the United Kingdom in 2018.

It is one of the largest one-time donations the museum has received in recent years, providing precious tangible evidence for the study of China's maritime trade in the 19th century and the Maritime Silk Road route, as well as Dehua's porcelain history, according to the museum.

Wang Yu, the museum's vice curator, said the museum will invite experts, shipbuilders and other professionals to conduct research in order to build a model of the Tek Sing.