Heng Yuan Yixing Zisha Teapot – Aged Zini Clay, 100ml

This is a 100 ml zisha teapot in Aged Zini Clay, hand-carved, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 恒圆.

The clay. Zini ore that has been weathered and stored for years before use. The saying in Yixing is that clay grows more supple with age — aged zini works more smoothly on the wheel and fires to a deeper, more settled purple. Mellower than fresh zini. The liquor comes through soft and rounded rather than bright, which is why long-time drinkers tend to gravitate to older stock.

The form. This is the Heng Yuan form — 恒圆 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. 100 ml is the classic gongfu size — comfortable for one drinker or two sharing small cups, and the volume most Chaoshan-style brewing was built around. Best suited to ripe pu-erh, aged white tea and black tea.

This pot. Catalogue no. 341, 100 ml, US$350. 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

• Hanwa Yixing Zisha Teapot — Aged Zini Clay, 150 ml, $450
• Handmade Duo Qiu Yixing Zisha Teapot — Aged Zini Clay, 100 ml, $350
• Longdan Yixing Zisha Teapot — Aged Zini Clay, 100 ml, $350

Or browse every Aged Zini pot · the full Yixing catalogue.