Handmade Gourd Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Duanni Clay, 160ml
Handmade Gourd Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Duanni Clay, 160ml
This is a 160 ml sculptural form teapot in Duanni Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 葫芦.
The clay. A co-formed ore of zini and green clay, firing to a satin yellow. Duanni is strongly sandy — more bone than flesh, as potters put it — and among the most breathable bodies in Yixing. Very open. It suits delicate teas where you want lift and clarity rather than weight.
The form. The subject here is gourd — in Chinese decorative vocabulary, a pun on fu-lu — good fortune and rank. 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. At 160 ml this fills three or four cups at once — enough for guests without moving to a full teapot. Best suited to green tea, raw pu-erh and white tea.
One honest note on duanni-family clays: because the body is pale and very open, dark and heavily roasted teas can leave uneven marks if the pot is handled with oily hands or left wet. Rinse it, dry it, and keep it to lighter teas and it will come up beautifully.
This pot. Catalogue no. 289, 160 ml, US$280. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.
Made by an independent Dingshu potter working outside the titled-master system. We do not attach a name we cannot verify.
| Clay | Duanni Clay (段泥) |
|---|---|
| Form | Sculptural Form (仿生器) |
| Capacity | 160 ml |
| Craft | Fully handmade (全手工) |
| Origin | Dingshu, Yixing, Jiangsu, China |
| Catalogue no. | 289 |
New to zisha? Read how to season a Yixing teapot before first use.
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Or browse every Duanni pot · the full Yixing catalogue.
