Wendan Yixing Zisha Teapot – Golden Duanni Clay, 90ml

This is a 90 ml zisha teapot in Golden Duanni Clay, hand-carved, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 文旦.

The clay. The duanni that fires brightest — a clear, luminous gold, with an unusually fine and even grain for the family. Deepens from yellow toward amber as it is used, so the colour of the pot and the colour of the liquor start to answer each other. Best on lighter teas where that can be seen.

The form. This is the Wendan form — 文旦 in Chinese. It is one of the many shapes carried in the Dingshu workshops outside the small set of canonical forms, and it is built by the same slab-and-beat method as the classics. We describe what we can verify: the ore, the method and the proportions.

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. At 90 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 green tea, raw pu-erh and light oolong.

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. 037, 90 ml, US$101. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.

Made by 陈敬. 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

• Qie Gua Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 100 ml, $100
• Handmade Xishi Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 100 ml, $85
• Xishi Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 90 ml, $150

Or browse every Golden Duanni pot · the full Yixing catalogue.