The Carswell Collection at the Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford) includes over 700 pieces that were collected in Malé by Professor John Carswell during a visit to the Maldives in 1974. While most of the pieces collected by Carswell are Chinese ceramics, there are also some examples of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian wares represented in this assemblage. Since the time that these pieces were originally donated to the Museum they have been kept in offsite storage and thus unavailable for public viewing for several decades. In collaboration with the Ashmolean the Maldives Heritage Survey team was able to catalogue and document this special collection. Full records and image sets are now available through the MAHS database.
