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So I've been recently been getting more into tea again and was interested in knowing more about some of the teapots I had. I don't know the origin of the teapots - they were given to us awhile back. I did some reading and they're probably half hand-made?

Would this be likely "da hongni?" half handmade?


Some kind of "zini" half handmade?

First two next to each other (teapot on the right is the first teapost I showed a picture of)

Would this be possibly a handmade "da hongni?"

In my opinion quality/purity of clay is more important than crafting method, but of course there is a relation between the two.
If "half-hand-made" refers to a slab build with use external molds for shaping, then there is usually somewhat detectable spot on the main wall where a seam was located (i'm talking about pots with round body): usually very slight bump on the interior of the pot either at spout or handle or both which can be felt by a finger, however it is not always obvious.
Difficult to judge from photos, the 1st pot looks the best to me, looks it could be some kind of zini.

Thanks. I had read something about a seam that might be detectable, but I didn't notice it. Since I don't know much about the teapots I was kind of curious about the quality of the teapots...but I too had also heard the quality of the clay matters more to the taste of the tea than the artisan.