The coated pots

[Kale]

I was about to message Steanze about that, but perhaps this will be a question of more general interest.
What is the idea or purpose behind the coated f1 pots? the neizis and others?
What's the idea? is it for economical reasons? aesthetic reasons?

[Bok]

Red is more popular as a colour, especially in China. But as they were running out of the good red stuff, they applied a watered coat of it to the more available, but less popular brownish zini.

[tealifehk]

Yes, it was done for appearance. I have several late 70s/early 80s nzwh shuipings. I find they seem to be a bit higher fired than the 'brown' zini pots from that period and perform somewhere between zini and hongni. They're great pots!

[steanze]

Red is more popular as a colour, especially in China. But as they were running out of the good red stuff, they applied a watered coat of it to the more available, but less popular brownish zini.

That's right. One more point that's worth noting is that the practice of making pots that are externally hongni and internally zini originated in the ROC period, before the good hongni was running out, for aesthetic reasons. I've once seen a pot made by Fan Dasheng that was "neiziwaihong" (not mine unfortunately pictures below), and he would not have issues getting the best clay available during ROC.

dasheng_1.jpg (340.83 KiB) Viewed 5561 times

dasheng_2.jpg (340.75 KiB) Viewed 5561 times

dasheng_3.jpg (92.72 KiB) Viewed 5561 times

[ShuShu]

That's a pretty pot...

[steanze]

That's a pretty pot...

Yes, Fan Dasheng was one of the greatest craftsmen of ROC. This is far above the level of even the "rare" 1960s F1 pots.

[.m.]

i've seen a claim somewhere (which i cant verify) that some old zhuni pots were produced by this technique. This would make sense in terms of the rarity of zhuni ore, and the difficulty in its firing.

[steanze]

i've seen a claim somewhere (which i cant verify) that some old zhuni pots were produced by this technique. This would make sense in terms of the rarity of zhuni ore, and the difficulty in its firing.

I've never seen an old zhuni pot made in that way. Which does not necessarily mean that it doesn't exist, but having seen a couple hundred or more old zhunis it would suggest that it's really quite rare. Personally, I would be highly skeptical of that claim.

[Chadrinkincat]

This this an ROC example of crackle glaze + Niezhiwaihong on a plate.

[.m.]

i've seen a claim somewhere (which i cant verify) that some old zhuni pots were produced by this technique. This would make sense in terms of the rarity of zhuni ore, and the difficulty in its firing.

I've never seen an old zhuni pot made in that way. Which does not necessarily mean that it doesn't exist, but having seen a couple hundred or more old zhunis it would suggest that it's really quite rare. Personally, I would be highly skeptical of that claim.

Thank you for clarifying that.

[Bok]

That's right. One more point that's worth noting is that the practice of making pots that are externally hongni and internally zini originated in the ROC period, before the good hongni was running out, for aesthetic reasons. I've once seen a pot made by Fan Dasheng that was "neiziwaihong" (not mine unfortunately pictures below), and he would not have issues getting the best clay available during ROC.

dasheng_1.jpg
dasheng_2.jpg
dasheng_3.jpg

Seeing this, I was also flicking through a very nice book about Yixing which I acquired in Taiwan, loads of high quality images of antique pots – next to those everything I see around now seems like clumsy akward shadows of their ancestral pots! The colours of the clay, the craftsmanship and attention to detail is breathtaking in some of them. Some quite simply in design, but everything fits together harmoniously and perfectly. Just hope those poor old chaps get some tea to quench their thirst. The must be all dried up, colecting dust in someone’s collection/museum.

I can understand how those pots can fetch a few thousand $