Square Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zhuni Clay, 130ml
Square Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zhuni Clay, 130ml
This is a 130 ml square form teapot in Zhuni Clay, hand-carved, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 四方.
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 Square Form (方器) dates to the traditional category, attributed to various. Square work is the harder half of the craft: every plane must be cut, joined and trued by hand, and any error shows along the whole edge. Crisp arrises and flat faces. Judged on whether the seams disappear.
How it was made. Decoration cut into the leather-hard clay by hand with a steel blade, in the Yixing engraving tradition that goes back to Chen Mansheng's collaborations with potters.
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. 386, 130 ml, US$700. 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.
| Clay | Zhuni Clay (朱泥) |
|---|---|
| Form | Square Form (方器) |
| Capacity | 130 ml |
| Craft | Hand-carved (刻绘) |
| Origin | Dingshu, Yixing, Jiangsu, China |
| Catalogue no. | 386 |
New to zisha? Read how to season a Yixing teapot before first use.
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