Handmade Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Tianqingni Clay, 150ml

This is a 150 ml sculptural form teapot in Tianqingni Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 松桩.

The clay. A legendary zini recorded in Ming-dynasty texts and now genuinely scarce. It fires to a deep, quiet blue-green cast with a faint purple glow and a very fine grain. Understated. The appeal is in the restraint — an aged, still quality rather than anything showy.

The form. The subject here is pine stump — in Chinese decorative vocabulary, the pine as one of the Three Friends of Winter. Naturalistic work — huaqi — takes its subject from the living world: gourds, pine, bamboo, lotus, fruit, animals. It descends directly from Gongchun's tree-burl pot, the founding object of the craft. Each piece is modelled and carved rather than turned, so no two come out the same.

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. 150 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 aged pu-erh, aged oolong and white tea.

This pot. Catalogue no. 266, 150 ml, US$800. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.

Made by 张琦. 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

• Handmade Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 150 ml, $620
• Handmade Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Qing Duanni Clay, 175 ml, $740
• Handmade Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Qing Duanni Clay, 130 ml, $700

Or browse every Tianqingni pot · the full Yixing catalogue.