Gongchun Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zhuni Clay, 80ml

This is a 80 ml gongchun teapot in Zhuni Clay, wood-fired, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 供春.

The clay. Very high in iron, fired to a bright vermilion, and dense enough to ring when the lid is tapped. Zhuni shrinks by up to twenty percent in the kiln, so a large share of every batch cracks — the Yixing saying is that a zhuni pot without wrinkles is not zhuni. Dense and low-porosity, so it holds aroma at the surface instead of absorbing it. This is the clay that makes fragrant teas smell like themselves.

The form. The Gongchun form (供春) dates to the Ming dynasty, Zhengde era, attributed to Gongchun. The founding object of Yixing pottery. A servant boy named Gongchun, attending his master's studies at Jinsha Temple, watched an old monk make pots and modelled his own on the burl of a ginkgo tree beside the temple. Bark-textured and irregular by design. 'A Gongchun pot is worth more than gold or jade' — the ancestor of the whole craft.

How it was made. Fired in a wood kiln, where flame path and falling ash decide the surface. Every piece comes out of the kiln differently, and none of it can be repeated on purpose.

Size and tea. At 80 ml this is a solo pot. One person, short infusions, and the small volume means you can push a good leaf through eight or ten steeps without ever brewing more than you drink. Best suited to oolong, dancong and green tea.

This pot. Catalogue no. 394, 80 ml, US$380. 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.

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

Similar teapots

• Handmade Longdan Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 60 ml, $300
• Handmade Xishi Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 100 ml, $600
• Gongchun Yixing Zisha Teapot — Yellow Jiangponi Clay, 50 ml, $400

Or browse every Zhuni pot · the full Yixing catalogue.