Handmade Jing Guan Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zhuni Clay, 130ml

This is a 130 ml zisha teapot in Zhuni Clay, fully handmade with hand carving, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 静观.

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. This is the Jing Guan form — 静观 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, then carved by hand before firing — both operations done on the same pot by the same maker.

Size and tea. 130 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. 248, 130 ml, US$700. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.

Made by 慧林. 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

• Bian Yu Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 160 ml, $650
• Square Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 160 ml, $800
• Handmade Ribbed Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zhuni Clay, 100 ml, $750

Or browse every Zhuni pot · the full Yixing catalogue.