A Tea Addict's Journal

This pot is one of the ones I use most heavily. I got this for a song because its handle was glued back on, but the gluing job was obviously very well done and there’s been no problem. The lion is quite detailed. The pot is stamped “tiehuaxuan zhi”. Tiehuaxuan is the name of a company during the Republican period making yixing pots, specializing especially in smaller pots (lion or shuiping) that have calligraphy and carving on them, like this one. They also make whole sets including pitchers and cups, but those get expensive. The seal under the lid is “Jiangji” referring, probably, to the maker Jiang Anqing who is known for making lion pots. 115ml.

Yes, another one. These seals are pretty common although they come in different shapes and sizes. 150ml.

The “gongju” mark is another one of these generic marks that supposedly mean something at some point, but is used so often it’s meaningless. The earliest ones are supposed to be made for imperial purposes starting in the Ming or the early Qing, but obviously most are much later. 130 ml.

The Japanese call all red clays “zhuni” but it really just means something red, not the specific type of clay that Chinese call zhuni. This pot is one of the types that I’m a real sucker for – pots that show you some sign of its construction. The box says “red clay teapot”. No marks. 150ml.

Seals can have some pretty creative types that make them hard to read. This one is one such case. It’s hard to make out what the seal says, so my best guess is chenxi, but it could really be other things. EDIT: Someone who knows this stuff better than I do claims it’s changxi. To call this lid loose is being generous – it’s practically falling off. It comes in a nice wooden box. The words on it says “cannon spout” “white clay kyusu”. The box is from Japan but the pot I believe is a yixing. 135ml.

Technically this probably isn’t a yixing at all. This is a pot made in the style of yixing teapots with an interesting white/gray coloured clay. The construction suggests that it’s probably wheel thrown with a clay that was considerably more liquid than typical yixing clay before firing. It’s probably a good example of karamono – literally “Chinese things” but in reality often just wares made in the Chinese style. The mark is “Sōgen seisei” if read in Japanese or “Zongyuan jingzhi” in Chinese. I couldn’t find any info on the name other than in an auction catalogue from Fukuoka in 2014 that also lists a pot with the same mark and white clay. No pictures there though. 135ml.

This is one of those pots with a carved line of poetry on the bottom. The seal under the handle is also “Changji” and the line roughly translates to “Fullness of fragrance within” with the two extra characters being the name Mengchen, which is often the name used for pots even though none of them are ever really made by the famous maker of the same name. Also bears the seal “shuiping” under the lid. Thin walls. 85 ml.

I need to start taking inventory of my teapots, because it’s gotten a little out of control and am preparing to move again in less than a year. Instead of doing it privately, perhaps I can post them here one by one. Before anyone asks, no, these things in my inventory are not going to be for sale. I am planning on selling some excess teaware that I no longer use – mostly gaiwan, cups, Japanese kyusus, that sort of thing. That will appear later as I try to gather and sort them.

Anyway, in no particular order. This is 135ml to the brim, stamped with “shuiping” under the lid, “changji” under the handle, and “Shaojinyouji” under the base.