Yixing

[Mark-S]

Mark-S
Overall shape of this pot doesn’t look right for F1. The shape of handle and placement seems especially wonky.

Thanks, you are referring to the first pot, right? I have read that F1 employed unskilled workers, and therefore the craftsmanship was not always good. So how do you know if it's bad craftsmanship or just a fake? That's the problem I am having with these standard style pots.

[Chadrinkincat]

Mark-S
Overall shape of this pot doesn’t look right for F1. The shape of handle and placement seems especially wonky.

Thanks, you are referring to the first pot, right? I have read that F1 employed unskilled workers, and therefore the craftsmanship was not always good. So how do you know if it's bad craftsmanship or just a fake? That's the problem I am having with these standard style pots.

I’m referring to the set you just posted.

If too many things seem wrong or wonky than its likely not just bad craftsmanship. The book is pretty useful tool since the shui ping is its main focus.

[Mark-S]

@Chadrinkincat
Oh, that would be a disappointment. The set did not look wonky to me at all.

[karma]

Chadrinkincat
Oh, that would be a disappointment. The set did not look wonky to me at all.

Wait til it arrives -- lens distortion could account for the weird proportions

[Chadrinkincat]

Chadrinkincat
Oh, that would be a disappointment. The set did not look wonky to me at all.

You should study the pot once it arrives and compare it to the photos. This is a useful exorcise for correctly identifying off details from photos before spending money on fake or crap pots in future.

I’ve also purchased a few pots for the sole purpose of testing my ability to correctly identify flaws and issues from photos. Also worth doing as long as pot is very cheap or allows returns.

[Bok]

Thanks, you are referring to the first pot, right? I have read that F1 employed unskilled workers, and therefore the craftsmanship was not always good. So how do you know if it's bad craftsmanship or just a fake? That's the problem I am having with these standard style pots.

Craftsmanship is also the ability to copy a certain shape and proportions of handle, spout etc. closely. F2 and fakes often are off in placement and general proportions. Bad craftsmanship for F1 refers to not cleaning up properly, random toolmarks and such. But they are rarely bad in terms of getting the different parts of the pot in the wrong position or weird shapes.

So to second the above, having a good reference book and training one's eye are essential for spotting these differences. Books are better than online images as so many posted as real, are in fact not...

[Bok]

I have bought this much nicer set recently. Seems to be genuine in my opinion... maybe late 70s to early 80s (?), but I will post it in the Facebook group once it arrives.

Might be the angle the pic is taken, but that lid knob looks gigantic, which would be a big fat no for green label...

The early-late factory periods is really tricky to wade through, millions and millions of pots out there, plus F2, F5, fakes and repros. The details are minute and the pitfalls are many. Good way to p...ss away a lot of money for worthless crap.

Look more, buy less is the best advice.

[Noonie]

10+ years ago when I first got into tea I came across articles and such about yixing pots. I've read a bit about them over the years but I'm not really up to speed on matching clays to tea and the myriad of factors one can think of when deciding on and purchasing a yixing pot.

Fast forward to today - I recently acquired the taste for ripe pu'erh and I'm thinking of getting a yixing pot to dedicate to this type of tea. I'm guessing I'll have one cake of ripe open at a time and would dedicate the pot to this pu'erh. When the cake is through, mildly re-season the pot and use with the next cake...and so on. I drink other types of tea, so would maybe drink ripe pu'erh 5x a week.

I've ordered some ripe from YS and spoke with Scott about those with little to no wet pile taste. I have some being shipped. With the samples I've had to date I used a 100ml gaiwan. I do like gaiwan's and the tea was fine with it, but the appeal of a yixing pot is there for me, including perhaps taking off a slight edge to ripe pu'erhs with the early steeps that is sometimes there. Plus it's another way of delving into tea culture. I'll be honest, that's probably the biggest appeal (lots to research). I don't expect a miracle yixing pot that will transform the taste of the tea. Of course I don't want any harmful clays, but aside from that drawback, I'm planning on researching a few factors and if you have any further pointers I'm open ears:

- firing of the pot
- 80's vs. modern vs. other timelines
- size, I'm thinking around 100ml as it's always for one, and this is my go-to size
- single vs. multiple hole is a new factor for me, as I notice those 80's pots are often single hole and I'm 'guessing' (?) that you lose some of the small bits of tea when brewing and as such a strainer is necessary (I have one anyways)

I'll do some reading here of course but like I say, any guidance you can offer is appreciated.

[Chadrinkincat]

@Noonie

Go with high fired zini unless you desire a far more muting pot for using an extra high leaf to water ratio. 1/10ml

Reseting your pot every time you open a new cake is pointless.

Filter style isn’t that important

These are budget friendly zini pots that should work well for brewing shu. No real need to bother w/ vintage pots for shu unless you prefer the aesthetic of them.

https://www.yinchenteapot.com/productde ... 70669.html


https://www.yinchenteapot.com/productde ... 94595.html

https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/p595 ... 5ml__.html

[Chadrinkincat]

@Mark-S

The “please drink oolong tea” pot at the earliest would be early 90’s or laser era if real.

As far as I’ve read it has no connection to the famous ones w/ 22 character seal. There are a few 90’s examples from the book. Here’s a few from FB and one from 2088tea

http://2088taiwan.com//index.php?route= ... uct_id=147

https://m.facebook.com/groups/142937832 ... 7937189867

https://m.facebook.com/groups/142937832 ... 0700790595

https://m.facebook.com/groups/142937832 ... 8548159143

Also that tea set shares some of the wonky flaws of these early-late 90’s pots but I don’t believe this pot is right for these eras either since I’ve seen this set in person. I’ve been wrong before so it’s possible I’m wrong in case but that would still make this set over priced.

[Mark-S]

@Chadrinkincat
Thanks for the images. I really need this book as a reference.

I can see now that especially the lid looks different in the book. The teapot with the characters cost less than $30, but I am still glad I haven't bought it. It did not look that nice anyway.

What's driving me nuts is the set, since it was not inexpensive, and I really like it. Maybe the lid knob is too big, but the diffferences are not that big in my opinion. There are many teapots that look similar imho... for example this set you own: The handle on your teapot looks thicker, but that's because of the smaller size, I guess. Hopefully, you are wrong about it, because the shipping back to the UK is expensive. I have added another picture (with less lens distortion) to this post. When it arrives I will post it in the Facebook group and tell you their opinion.

[Chadrinkincat]

@Mark-S

You can see from this new photo that the handle is misshapen and hangs off the pot in a weird way. Those cups are also not the normal ones that come w/ 70-80’s sets. The lip/rim of those are too thick.

Here is a post of supposed laser era pot w/ 2 cups. No idea if these are even legit cups though. These cups look similar to the ones that come w/ your set but the base is different and these don’t normally have a seal.
https://m.facebook.com/catcat101/posts/ ... dp=1&mdf=1

Also this pot has lots of loose clay dust and smells like a crayon. These are two things I haven’t encountered from NOS F1 pots but than again I haven’t seen very many laser period pots in person so it’s possible this is normal for this era.

[Mark-S]

@Chadrinkincat
Unfortunately, I cannot open your Facebook links. Could you please check this link?

I like the handle but if you are right and this is a non F1 or laser era pot, I will most likely return it because it's not worth $143 to me.

-

Today, I have seen this antique pot. I did not buy it, but the design is interesting. Why does the teapot consist of two parts. What's the purpose of this? The teapot is about 4 inch tall.

[.m.]

Chadrinkincat
Unfortunately, I cannot open your Facebook links. Could you please check this link?

I like the handle but if you are right and this is a non F1 or laser era pot, I will most likely return it because it's not worth $143 to me.

-

Today, I have seen this antique pot. I did not buy it, but the design is interesting. Why does the teapot consist of two parts. What's the purpose of this? The teapot is about 4 inch tall.

It's not a teapot but a wine pot for warming wine. Potentially from 1700s.
But the lid is not correct size.

[Mark-S]

@.m.
Oh, I did not know that. At least I was right with the fact that this is an antique. Learning never stops...