Handmade Gongchun Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zhuni Clay, 150ml

This is a 150 ml gongchun teapot in Zhuni Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 金蟾供春.

The clay. Very high in iron, fired to a bright vermilion, and dense enough to ring when the lid is tapped. Zhuni shrinks by up to twenty percent in the kiln, so a large share of every batch cracks — the Yixing saying is that a zhuni pot without wrinkles is not zhuni. Dense and low-porosity, so it holds aroma at the surface instead of absorbing it. This is the clay that makes fragrant teas smell like themselves.

The form. The Gongchun form (供春) dates to the Ming dynasty, Zhengde era, attributed to Gongchun. The founding object of Yixing pottery. A servant boy named Gongchun, attending his master's studies at Jinsha Temple, watched an old monk make pots and modelled his own on the burl of a ginkgo tree beside the temple. Bark-textured and irregular by design. 'A Gongchun pot is worth more than gold or jade' — the ancestor of the whole craft.

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 oolong, dancong and green tea.

This pot. Catalogue no. 310, 150 ml, US$199. 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

• Gongchun Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 80 ml, $380
• Xiao Ying Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 160 ml, $150
• Handmade Shuiping Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 100 ml, $300

Or browse every Zhuni pot · the full Yixing catalogue.