Lotus Pedestal Yixing Zisha Teapot – Golden Duanni Clay, 200ml

This is a 200 ml lotus pedestal teapot in Golden Duanni Clay, wood-fired with a flame-cloud finish, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 莲台.

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 Lotus Pedestal form — 莲台 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. Wood-fired long enough for the flame to leave cloud-like blushes across the body. The effect cannot be aimed at, only accepted.

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 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. 173, 200 ml, US$80. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.

Made by 刘群. 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

• Ru Xiang Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 160 ml, $80
• Handmade Jinglan Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 160 ml, $85
• Handmade Jun Yu Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 160 ml, $85

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