More new Yixing teapots

photo by Angie Chao for The Story of Tea

There are simply too many great Yixing teapots out there to limit our selection to just a few choices.  So here are three more new selections that we are very keen on, and believe me, choosing from the hundreds that we saw and handled in China, the decision was not an easy one.

If you wish to read about  why Yixing teapots are so important and popular with tea enthusiasts please read my post on Yixing teapots that I published earlier this week.  

This trio of teapots features some of the more unusual Yixing clays and are great pots to add to a collection of fine teawares.  I love tea ceramics, especially the feel and functionality of unglazed clay wares, so these teapots really speak to me personally. I don’t see many teapots made from clays like these very often in China, and when I do, and if they are irresistible, I almost always buy them when I can.

Qui Duan Teapot

Qui Duan shape teapot

This teapot is a stunning dappled grey/tan color. The clay is smooth with generous, tiny dark brown flecks throughout the clay. Careful shaping and smoothing has given the teapot a flawless appearance and the flecks add a sueded-matte feeling to the finish that makes the pot ‘sing’ handling it. The lid fits over the teapot opening and it makes a nice, high-ringing sound when turned in place.

The artist who made this pot is another female potter: Yuan Mingzhi. She has used a type of clay for this pot that is called Hong Ma Zi Ni or red marked clay.  The clay is very breathable and extremely well suited to bring out the aroma of oolongs of all types. The capacity is 8 ounces and the bellyof the pot is broad, which is also good for oolongs. The artist has signed the teapot on the bottom only.

The artist’s seal on the teapot bottom

 

Fang Gu Teapot

Fang Gu shape teapot

This teapot is also by the artist Yuan Mingzhi. The clay is called burnt Duan Ni because the teapot has been fired in an old dragon ( climbing ) kiln. ( We had the chance to visit some kilns of this type in Japan this spring and they are most impressive. Stay tuned for an upcoming post on those kilns and the teawares they produce).

Dragon kilns fire hot and for several days because they are very large and hold many pieces of ceramic. The hot spots in those kilns create wonderful natural effects on the clay pieces inside. This teapot has many, many flecks on the surface of the pot, many more than the Qui Duan Hong Ma clay teapot.

The pot is light and airy in feeling, and the slight roughness of the surface gives it a stone-like feeling when handled. This pot will season well and develop a rich character and patina. The clay breathes very nicely and the pot has a big belly which is a good choice for oolongs or Pu-erh. The capacity is 6 ounces.

The artist has signed the work in three places: on the bottom of the teapot, on the underside of the handle where it is joined to the body of the teapot and inside the lid. 

 

 

 

 

The artist’s seal on the teapot bottom

 

Jun Lun Teapot

Jun Lun shape teapot

This teapot has flecking in the clay but unlike the two previous teapots, the flecking does not add texture to the surface of the pot.  The teapot feels smooth and has a lustrous patina, and the color is an unusual and  wonderful shade of army brown/green. It has an elegant shape, and beautiful proportions.

From the overhanging lid to the well-defined footring, this teapot is simply stunning. The curvaceous handle is a lovely counterpoint to the straightness of the spout and the geometry of the lid. The lid rings with a high tone when turned in place, a sign of good quality clay. The clay is Qing Hui Ni from Fuding, and is from old clay that has been in storage.

The artist who made this teapot is Zhou Shun Fang and the pot is signed on the bottom and inside the lid.

The artist’s seal on the teapot bottom

Each  of the three teapots pictured above is $70.00. Until these teapots can be posted on our new Tea Trekker website,  please call us to place an order: 1-413-584-5116.

Yixing Clay Teapots

 Yixing Clay: Zisha  Purple Sand Teapots
Jiangsu Province, China

Unglazed Yixing teapots have held a special place in Chinese tea culture for over 500 years. These small teapots were first used in China during the late Song dynasty.  As tea and tea culture continued to develop throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) Yixing clay teapots became even more important.

The Hongwu Emperor  (r. 1368–98), the first emperor  of the Ming dynasty, began his reign by instituting an historic change in the method by which tea was manufactured, prepared and drunk in China. He decreed that tea was no longer to be made in a wide-rimmed tea bowl from whipped powdered tea scraped from a small compressed cake of tea.  Instead, he ushered in a more naturalistic method that called for steeping whole tea leaves.

New tea wares were needed for this different method of tea preparation. Potters working in the Yixing pottery kilns turned their skills from making functional household potteries to crafting small, utilitarian vessels to hold tea leaves and hot water, and which could also easily pour the tea liquor into drinking cups without spilling.

By the reign of the Ming emperor Zhengde  ( r. 1505-1521 ) Yixing teapots had advanced into fashionable and artistic objects of desire.  A fine balance was reached between the artistic and the practical. In much the same manner that the tea literati of the Song dynasty fueled the production of fine, richly glazed tea bowls and other pieces of equipment necessary for scraping compressed tea cakes, Ming tea drinkers sought artistically rendered Yixing teapots by master potters for use at their tea gatherings.

By the later days of the Ming dynasty teapots were made from other materials, too.  The Jingdezhen kilns became famous for producing thin, hard white ceramics that were finished with a clear, shiny glaze – porcelain. Unlike Yixing clay teapots, glazed porcelain teapots do not contribute to the flavor of the tea, nor do the teapots become ‘seasoned’ with use. While there is a strong tradition in China, Japan, and Korea for unglazed teapots and tea cups, some essential items, such as Chinese gaiwans and elegant, thin-walled tea drinking cups, are made from porcelain.

 But among connoisseurs of Chinese tea Yixing teapots have a strong appeal. There is a two-fold reason for this.

1.   The appearance of the teapot.  The seemingly endless array of Yixing teapot designs is inspiring and dazzling, and more than one hapless admirer has ended up becoming a passionate collector of these small beauties.

Well-designed Yixing teapots have a simple elegance and an overall warmth that is very appealing. The unglazed surfaces of the teapots project a rich sense of beauty that focuses on the shape of the teapot and the color and texture of the clay.

The best Yixing teapots are built by hand from slabs of clay that the potter prepares before creating the teapot. ( Less expensive pots are assembled from pre- molded pieces of clay and the least expensive pots are made from a slip or mud that is poured into a mold and then seamed together with applied handles and lid ).

Some potters break down small pieces of Yixing clay rock to make and them age their clay; other purchase finished clay from clay makers. Approximately 125 steps are necessary to build one Yixing teapot by hand ( Yixing clay is not thrown on a wheel ), using only small wooden and metal tools to assist the artist in cutting, smoothing, flattening, trimming, polishing and refining the pot.

Some teapots feature a few lines of calligraphy from a famous poem or simple etched flower or bamboo designs on one side. Others might be shaped like a tree trunk or other element of nature, while many pots are strikingly plain and speak with a strong voice.

These teapots are intentionally small in size to correspond with the Chinese style of tea drinking:  small teapots, small cups, multiple infusions of the same leaf.  The shape of the teapot is conducive to steeping tea and the parts of the teapots – body, handle and lid – are in harmony and scale to one another. The balance and pouring ability of the teapot must be confident and sure, providing control when being used.

Most new Yixing teapots have a matte finish. Over time, this smooth surface will develop a soft, lustrous patina from use and handling.

2.  The special nature of the clay.  The raw material for Zisha clay teapots is mined in the Dingshu district of Yixing City. This clay occurs naturally in five different earth colors: red ( Hong Ni ); black ( Hei Ni ) ; purple ( Zi Ni );  yellow or greenish ( Duan Ni ); green ( Lu Ni ). By mixing these clays ( or not ), adding certain minerals and varying the firing method and temperature, potters can achieve a wide range of appealing earth tones.

Each teapot is fired at a high temperature ( but below that of porcelain ) so the clay remains slightly absorbent and has an ‘elastic ‘ quality that keeps it from cracking when hot water is added.  It is important to note that Zisha clays are lead-free, which is critical because the clay interacts with the tea while it steeps. The characteristics of this clay allow the teapots to ‘breathe’ which is beneficial to the flavor and aroma of tea steeped in it.

Yixing clay is unique in the world. Teapots made with this clay are odorless and impart no off ‘clay’ taste to the tea. But the nature of this clay allows the teapots to ‘cure’ from constant use.  In fact, part of the joy of owning one of these teapots is the notion of ‘raising’ one’s own teapot.  This means having the teapot develop from a newly made piece to a ‘cured’ or ‘seasoned’ teapot. Seasoning occurs from repeated usage and handling, and it ultimately affects the color, smoothness, patina and feel of the teapot.

And since Yixing teapots are unglazed, the clay will absorb the characteristics of the tea that is put into it. So, it is advisable to always use your Yixing teapot with only one type of tea. For example, tea enthusiasts who enjoy dark oolongs will have a Yixing teapot just for those, and ‘raise’ a different pot to use for steeping ‘green’, less oxidized oolongs. The same logic applies to maintaining separate teapots for sheng and shou Pu-erh.

Teapots by Wang Jian Ying

Please take a moment to appreciate the beauty of our Yixing teapot selections from a respected teapot artist. We have chosen three teapots by a female potter – Wang Jian Ying - who has national recognition and has earned the title of Master Craftsworker. The surface of her pots are smooth and uniform from careful burnishing and the overall feeling conveyed by these teapots is one of quiet elegance. Her clay is an unusual one named Da Hong Pao which was a popular and highly regarded clay during the Qing dynasty. This clay  has high density and and a large percentage of iron oxide which gives the pots a distinctive crimson color after being kiln fired.

Choose from 3 classic styles: Duo Qiu, Wen Dan, and Duo Zhi.   Wang Jian Yin signs her teapots in four places: on the bottom of the teapot, on the underside of the handle, inside the lid and also inside the body of the teapot, which is unusual. She also inscribes on the bottom of each teapot that the piece is entirely built by her by hand from this special Da Hong Pao clay.

All of these Yixing teapots are round in shape and have enough room for the tea to expand to its full leaf size. Each are a perfect match for steeping green semiball-rolled oolongs such as Tieguanyin and Tung Ting, dark strip style oolong such as yan cha, and Pu-erh.

Duo Qiu shape teapot

Wen Dan shape teapot

Duo Zhi shape teapot

Chinese ‘12 Flowers of the Months Teacups’ – September/Chrysanthemum

 

 

Chrysanthemums belong to the Asteraceae (Compositae) family, which is one of the largest families of flowering plants. These flowers were first cultivated in China more than 2,000 years ago. These showy blossoms are associated with autumn and the ninth lunar month – September – which is called the chrysanthemum month.

Its Chinese name “ju” means “gathering together” because the flower looks like a petal ball. To the Chinese the chrysanthemum flower, blessed with both many petals and the fortitude to blossom in the cold days of late autumn and early winter, signifies abundance and longevity. For people about to entire retirement, the calm presence of chrysanthemums is said to welcome in a quiet life. Chrysanthemum was deemed to be one of the four honourable plants by Chinese scholars in the pastalong with plum, orchid and bamboo.

Today chrysanthemums come in a variety of shapes and petal arrangements but originally the chrysanthemum was just a small yellow flower.

After generations of cultivation, the number of varieties grew rapidly. In the Chrysanthemum Book of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), 35 varieties were noted but by the time of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the number had risen to 136. In Li Shizhen’s famous book, “Ben Cao Gang Mu”, finished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), more than 900 varieties of chrysanthemum were listed. Today more than 3,000 varieties are blooming in China.

Just as knowledge and a taste for tea traveled from China to Japan and Korea, chrysanthemums found their way to Japan and Korea as well.

From that time onward, chrysanthemums, known as kikus in Japan, were depicted on artworks and luxury objects such as lacquer boxes, porcelain incense cases and inro ( elaborately decorated little cases that were used to carry seals for personal documents and later used for carrying medicines ) and depicted on gilded screens as lavish sprays of blossoms  or solitary blossoms, often accompanied by small birds or animals. In fact, chrysanthemums are featured on the Imperial Crest of Japan ( a 16-petal flower ) and references to the Japanese emperor are often referred to as coming from the ‘chrysanthemum throne.’

Chrysanthemums stated a craze in Japan for botany and gardening that extended from the upper echelons of the military elite to all levels of society. In the late 19th century at the royal family garden – Shinjuku Gyoen – in Tokyo,  a painstaking technique for training chrysanthemum plants to grow exhibition sized blossoms was developed.

This technique is called ozukuri (“thousand blooms”) utilized single chrysanthemum plants that are ”trained,” for a year or more, to produce hundreds of blossoms in a massive, dome-shaped configurations or cascades of blossoms that spill down to the floor like a drapery. The technique requires every branch and stem to be painstakingly pinched, staked, tied, and generally forced to grow according to the strict rules of the tradition.    

Chrysanthemums even have a moshi and bean paste confection in their honor in Japan that is called a ‘namagashi. Yum, I love these !

       http://kyotofoodie.com/chrysanthemum-namagashi   

In Chinese medicine, chrysanthemum is used to maintain healthy cholesterol levels, normalize blood pressure and improve blood flow. It is also used to sharpen hearing and vision, to calm the nerves and clear the brain. It has been proven to be of value in preventing sore throat and reducing fever. For all of its attributes, the Chinese consider chrysanthemum to be a longevity elixir,  and a perfect companion and flavor-compliment to the delicious flavor of tea.

Chrysanthemum tea can be made by adding a small quantity whole dried chrysanthemum blossoms to green or to black tea, or it is found in herbal mixtures such as Ba Bao Cha ( the Eight Treasures ) which consists of dried fruits, dried citrus peels, dried berries, dried flower petals, rock sugar and dried chrysanthemum flowers. Plain chrysanthemum flowers can also be brewed as an herbal tea by those looking for a delicate, light-flavored, caffeine-free beverage.

The verse on the back of my cup has been translated for me as such:

 one branch of yellow flowers sees the frost

 

 

 

For detailed information on the history of Chinese 12 Flowers of the Months tea cups, please read my post from January 1st, 2010.