Handmade Yuan Bao Yixing Zisha Teapot – Dahongpao Clay, 200ml

This is a 200 ml yuan bao teapot in Dahongpao Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is Yuan Bao.

The clay. The top grade of zhuni — an intensely red ore, scarce, and so prone to shrinkage that most of a kiln load is lost. The pots that survive are vivid and even. The most aroma-forward clay in the catalogue. Nothing is absorbed; everything is thrown forward into the cup.

The form. The subject here is silver ingot — in Chinese decorative vocabulary, wealth, in its most direct form. Naturalistic work — huaqi — takes its subject from the living world: gourds, pine, bamboo, lotus, fruit, animals. It descends directly from Gongchun's tree-burl pot, the founding object of the craft. Each piece is modelled and carved rather than turned, so no two come out the same.

How it was made. Built entirely by hand — the wall is beaten out from a slab and joined without a mould. Inside the body you can still read the tool marks and the joint line, which is how the method is verified.

Size and tea. 200 ml is a sharing pot. It suits a table of four or more, or a long single steep of something you want to drink slowly over an afternoon. Best suited to dancong, yancha and high-fragrance oolong.

This pot. Catalogue no. 094, 200 ml, US$85. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.

Made by Qin Changming. We buy directly from the workshop rather than through a wholesaler, so the attribution comes with the pot.

New to zisha? Read how to season a Yixing teapot before first use.

Similar teapots

• Handmade Gourd Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Dahongpao Clay, 170 ml, $85
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• Handmade Tall Shipiao Yixing Zisha Teapot — Dahongpao Clay, 160 ml, $85

Or browse every Dahongpao pot · the full Yixing catalogue.