Antique Teapots
Posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 6:07 am
Chinese Clay Teapots
Until the 14th century, there was no such thing as a teapot; in China, tea was prepared and served in simple clay bowls. Tea was produced in small cakes made from salt and dried tea leaves pressed together; a piece of the cake was broken off and placed in the bowl, to which boiling water was added. After the solid tea separated from the liquid and sank, the tea was consumed from the same bowl, often for medicinal purposes rather than refreshment and distributed by healers.
The very first clay teapots, then, date from the 14th century. Several hundred years later, during the Song Dynasty in the 16th century, it is said that a monk from Jinsha temple fashioned the first pot from the famous purple zhisha clay of the YiXing region, which was renowned for its use in making tools and other cooking utensils. Today YiXing remains known for its clay teapots, and tourists to the region will find many shops offering these renowned local products. Besides individual artists making these teapots the old-fashioned way, the first mass-production teapot facility here opened in 1958 in the village of Dingshu.
The unique zhisha clay in this region contains quarts, mica, kaolin (a white clay), and iron oxide; this latter element gives the clay its purple pigmentataion. Additionally, zhisha clay is quite porous even after being fired, which lets the teapots made from this material absorb and retain the flavors of the teas brewed in them. Thus after several times making the same tea in a YiXing pot, it is possible to get tea-flavored water from the pot without using any tea! For this reason, many people dedicate their YiXing pot to one particular variety of tea.
Although many zhisha teapots are still handmade in the traditional artisan way, there are also factory-produced examples, made by filling the clay into pre-made molds and later assembling them. Even these pots often are individually smoothed out, finished, and decorated with etchings, carvings, or paintings by hand.
Both clay and earthenware (porcelain) teapots from China are available in a variety of shapes and sizes ranging from tiny to large, and including unique forms in the shapes of birds, animals, and other objects. Many scores of companies distribute these well-known pots the world over to be sold in specialty tea stores and by other merchants. Stoneware and porcelain pots are also found in an assortment of price ranges from inexpensive factory-made pieces to fine, rare hand-crafted examples that can be quite dear.
YiXing pots, specifically, also come in an assortment of shapes including tall ones, short ones, and both spherical and square teapots. They also vary in volume from individual serving-sized pots to those that hold four, eight, or more cups of tea. Often such pots are sold with a matching set of zhisha clay teacups. The cost of YiXing tea sets depends on their size, shape, age, and quality, but one may find examples starting around $40-50 and, for particularly rare and antique specimens, upwards of thousands of dollars.
The best quality tea is loose leaf, so you’ll need a Yixing teapot, cast iron teapot, or kyusu to steep it.
Antique Yixing teapots
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