Handmade Da Bin Ru Yi Yixing Zisha Teapot – Xiao Hongni Clay, 110ml

This is a 110 ml zisha teapot in Xiao Hongni Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 大彬如意.

The clay. A small-batch red clay, softer in colour than zhuni and more stable in the kiln. Lifts aroma without stripping body — a middle path between zini and zhuni.

The form. This is the Da Bin Ru Yi form — 大彬如意 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. 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. 110 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 black tea, roasted oolong and red tea.

This pot. Catalogue no. 347, 110 ml, US$400. 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.

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Or browse every Xiao Hongni pot.