Handmade Hand-Grip Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Songhua Duanni Clay, 140ml

This is a 140 ml hand-grip form teapot in Songhua Duanni Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 云泉宝瓶.

The clay. A duanni with a pine-pollen yellow-green cast. Open-bodied and pale, suiting fresh teas.

The form. The Hand-Grip Form (手抓壶) dates to the contemporary, attributed to contemporary makers. Built to be held by the body rather than a handle — the grip is worked into the form itself. Unusually direct in the hand. You feel the wall thickness and the heat of the tea as you pour.

How it was made. Built entirely by hand — the wall is beaten out from a slab and joined without a mould. Inside the body you can still read the tool marks and the joint line, which is how the method is verified.

Size and tea. 140 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. 265, 140 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

• Hand-Grip Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 100 ml, $350
• Hand-Grip Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Golden Duanni Clay, 130 ml, $600
• Handmade Hand-Grip Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Baiyu Duanni Clay, 180 ml, $400

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