On Taobao, without knowledge of language/manufacturers/prices/etc., how would one go about differentiating offerings from different sellers at varying price points? I got some search terms by switching article language on Wikipedia or letting Taobao autocomplete, e.g.:
- handmade -- 手工
- qīnghuā (blue on white) -- 青花
- porcelain -- 瓷器
- => blue on white porcelain -- 青花瓷
- teapot -- 茶壶
- => blue and white teapot -- 青花 茶壶
- Jingdezhen (city) -- 景德镇市
- => Jingdezhen teapot -- 景德镇市 茶壶
...but I find lots of stuff at all sorts of prices, from $5 to hundreds of $. On some pictures, I can clearly see that it's a lower quality product than what I got, e.g. some Dehua pots for $20-30 without claims of being handmade or hand-painted. Then there are $20 or even $5 "hand-painted Jingdezhen" pots, some with great pictures. Are they for real? If so, the Dehua seller would look like a scammer, but my limited experience tells me it's likely the Dehua seller is genuine and including real pictures of the actual products he sends, while the cheap ones will not really look like their pictures, esp. up close.
From the higher-priced, hand-painted Jingdezhen pots that turn up on Taobao, there's
this 120ml one for $110 and
this 140ml one for $146. (Careful not to get it from a definite scammer for
more than double.) Seem like nice pots. One is from Tmall, the other from a high-reputation seller, so I guess they are the real deal. Maybe they are comparable products to the M&L ($139), or maybe they are even better? The M&L looks finer to me, but I hold it in my hand and can only compare with photos, and these things do seem to look better in person. (Also, after a certain price point, they can be made using more traditional techniques, such as wood-firing, and the effects/irregularities they produce may be a matter of taste and no direct indication of quality/value compared to electric/gas-fired pots without such issues.)
FWIW, the one thing I can say definitely about the M&L is that it's in a different category than the cheaper ($5-$25) pots I've gotten via Ali Express and the like. The latter seem similar to what I saw in street shops on trips to China some years ago--stuff that's fine for the few bucks or cents it costs, but certainly not delicately made.
I've no idea how much you'd pay in China for similar quality as the pot I got. Acc/to M&L's
pitch, it's handmade and hand-painted in their own Jingdezhen studio (using "traditional Jingdezhen porcelain production techniques"). Whatever that means, it could be that M&L is including a healthy markup for selecting & offering relatively good pots in a way that's more accessible to Western customers. Not necessarily a bad thing (unless excessive) but it could also be not the case at all. Comparing to Taobao pics makes me think I got an OK deal, with less markup than I was initially assuming.