Identifying modern Zhu Ni
Could just be the pictures--hard to tell what it really looks like when everyone's cameras and screens are set up differently!
Oh, this is modern hongni (which is sold as 'zhuni'). There is fancy modern zhuni but it will cost you quite a bit more, and it actually looks like zhuni.
Zhuni is an entirely different clay from hongni. Real modern zhuni, at present, starts at around $500 in China. In the US? You aren't likely to find any real modern zhuni on the US market. Thanks to steanze as always for sharing his knowledge!
Modern hongni is sold as zhuni to help it sell better. Most modern zhuni is just high fired hongni, but it's not even the same as the hongni of old.
Modern hongni is sold as zhuni to help it sell better. Most modern zhuni is just high fired hongni, but it's not even the same as the hongni of old.
Hi ShuShu! Zhuni is not generally darker than hongni. Both zhuni and hongni can come in different shades. Some hongni is darker than some zhuni, some zhuni is darker than some hongni.
In your pictures, I would agree with tealifehk and think that the light is contributing. Look at the background, the one in the picture of the brighter looking pot looks brighter too.
Zhuni and hongni are indeed different clays. They look quite different in rock form, before they are processed and fired.
In my opinion, both pots you posted are modern hongni, although I'd need better lighting for the pot on the right to be fully confident.
Thank you for the clarification steanze!
does modern hungni have similar tea-related qualities to modern Zhuni? such as low porosity and density?
A vendor told me yersteray that he thinks that it’s the fact that modern Zhuni is so hard to get that explains its price and that it performs just a little bit better than modern high fired hongni. Does this alignes with your experience?
Yes. Though we'd have to see if what we call modern zhuni is the same thing. I have never seen a Western facing vendor carrying what I'd call modern zhuni.Kale wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:05 pmdoes modern hungni have similar tea-related qualities to modern Zhuni? such as low porosity and density?
A vendor told me yersteray that he thinks that it’s the fact that modern Zhuni is so hard to get that explains its price and that it performs just a little bit better than modern high fired hongni. Does this alignes with your experience?
There are many kinds of modern hongni, some of them can be quite good. For example, the one in the hongni shuiping in this set is pretty good: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1 ... 9765063715
others instead are just soso. In that case a gaiwan is better

You can, but you might find an even better one from F1 in the 70s, imo it's not worth it to get that set just for the hongni shuiping. Also, I'd pick a slightly thinner pot for DYL
https://songtea.com/products/lantern?va ... 5107786117steanze wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2018 2:01 pmYes. Though we'd have to see if what we call modern zhuni is the same thing. I have never seen a Western facing vendor carrying what I'd call modern zhuni.Kale wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:05 pmdoes modern hungni have similar tea-related qualities to modern Zhuni? such as low porosity and density?
A vendor told me yersteray that he thinks that it’s the fact that modern Zhuni is so hard to get that explains its price and that it performs just a little bit better than modern high fired hongni. Does this alignes with your experience?
There are many kinds of modern hongni, some of them can be quite good. For example, the one in the hongni shuiping in this set is pretty good: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1 ... 9765063715
others instead are just soso. In that case a gaiwan is better![]()
Would you call this modern zhuni?