Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Duanni Clay, 135ml
Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Duanni Clay, 135ml
This is a 135 ml sculptural form teapot in Duanni Clay, hand-carved, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 梅竹双馨.
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 bamboo — in Chinese decorative vocabulary, an upright, hollow-hearted humility. 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. Decoration cut into the leather-hard clay by hand with a steel blade, in the Yixing engraving tradition that goes back to Chen Mansheng's collaborations with potters.
Size and tea. 135 ml serves two to three people from a single fill, which makes it the most generally useful size on a tea table. 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. 288, 135 ml, US$520. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.
Made by 李作越. We buy directly from the workshop rather than through a wholesaler, so the attribution comes with the pot.
| Clay | Duanni Clay (段泥) |
|---|---|
| Form | Sculptural Form (仿生器) |
| Capacity | 135 ml |
| Craft | Hand-carved (刻绘) |
| Origin | Dingshu, Yixing, Jiangsu, China |
| Catalogue no. | 288 |
New to zisha? Read how to season a Yixing teapot before first use.
Similar teapots
- Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Duanni Clay, 140 ml, $550
- Handmade Gourd Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Duanni Clay, 130 ml, $420
- Handmade Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Duanni Clay, 200 ml, $520
Or browse every Duanni pot · the full Yixing catalogue.
