Handmade Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zini Clay, 100ml – No. 299

This is a 100 ml sculptural form teapot in Zini Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 西瓜.

The clay. Zini is the foundational Yixing clay — purple-brown, mined at Huanglong Mountain, and the most forgiving of all the ores. It is highly plastic, notably porous, and develops a patina faster than most clays. Even-tempered and genuinely versatile. It rounds out a brew rather than sharpening it, which makes it a safe first pot for someone who drinks several kinds of tea.

The form. The subject here is watermelon — in Chinese decorative vocabulary, summer, and a full sweet harvest. 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. 100 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 pu-erh, black tea and aged oolong.

This pot. Catalogue no. 299, 100 ml, US$280. 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

• Handmade Sculptural Form Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 150 ml, $450
• Handmade Artisan Design Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 100 ml, $250
• Handmade Hanwa Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 90 ml, $240

Or browse every Zini pot · the full Yixing catalogue.