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So an unexpected find yesterday: another Biandeng! Same size but a whole different workmanship, more sloppy, less balanced and in hongni.

Clay feels very dense and mid to high fired. Looks a bit dusty but that seems to be from the storage.

The vendor said he bought them in Yixing at least 30 years ago but is not sure how much longer they have been there before he bought them.

The handle is a tiny bit better balanced than the Nwlh, more comfortable to hold. Other than that volume and thickness seem to be almost identical.

And half of what I paid for the first!

what does the base look like?

Clay is definitely on the red side.

Took me ages to choose as he had a whole lot of them, all slightly different.

... and all the other basic 5 Yixing shapes. All seemingly from the same period and clay, maybe even the same firing.

steanze wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 16, 2018 9:59 pm

what does the base look like?

Ha! Knew I forgot something important!

mm this looks a bit weird to me. It's trying to be a 1980s green label but I am not quite convinced...

Gonna post it on the fb group as well, maybe someone knows more of what it is, maybe outside factory or F2-5.

Whatever it is, the clay and feel is nice, brewing is good as far as my first tests go.

So, FB group came back quickly, not F1 probably after 90.

Still a good buy at that price, clay and brewing behaviour is good.

Good extension as well to do some side by side comparisons with the other pot.

It’s a jungle out there

Bok wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 17, 2018 4:35 am

So, FB group came back quickly, not F1 probably after 90.

Still a good buy at that price, clay and brewing behaviour is good.

Good extension as well to do some side by side comparisons with the other pot.

That's what I thought. Several details are off.

Been looking a lot at other Biandengs, from different periods and with confirmed authenticity. Seems to me that this shape must have been more tricky to do and fire, even the older examples are often a bit wonky and off-shape, compared to the other basic shapes like standard Shuiping, Taijian, Bale etc.

The lids are rarely perfect.

Found an ancestor of my other biandengs, from the 60ies
Took a snap of the three, F1 60s, F1 80s and prob.80/90ies non F1, *which is still for sale

The clay of the 60s is beautiful and I now understand how some things have to be touched and felt to get the difference! Dense, silky, yet sandy.

80 NWLH has the best craftsmanship though. 60s seem to be more sloppy, especially the lids.

Sorry for the quality, the light is terrible today...

one more shot

Bok wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:41 am

one more shot