infusion mugs, lidded and or handled cups

[wave_code]

Perhaps not as coveted as F1 pots, but sometimes it is just what you need. Do these kinds of mugs/cups have a special name in Chinese?

I've been on the look out on and off for a nice mug for a while, with or without an infuser, and its actually proven kind of a difficult find. Most of what you see available especially in Europe are these hideous gaudy painted porcelain mugs. There are plenty of "yixing" mugs or lidded cups floating around on ebay and elsewhere of widely varying but probably mostly questionable quality, though maybe some are made with nothing fancy but at least acceptable/safe clay, just impossible to tell from photos.

Anyone got any in their collection they care to share and/or happen to have some leads on where to find some nicer ones? I remember seeing some that FarmerLeaf commissioned in a run of Jianshui pots but they disappeared pretty quickly, and TeaLife having a couple of nice vintage porcelain rice pattern ones.

I'm also curious how these kinds of mugs/cups came about. I've seen Japanese lidded cups as well. Did they start off as more what we would recognize as Chinese or Japanese style smaller cups with lids and the handles came later, slowly evolving to look more like a European style handled cup? Was it purely a western style invention with the infusers that worked its way backwards? Did any of the large factories ever produce cups in this style?

[Bok]

I would say they are probably just called gai bei, lidded cup. Whereas a gai wan would be a lidded bowl.

They produced those in factory times.

Style wise they are more of a Northern China thing, or the areas where green tea is drunk. Mainly throw in leaves and add water the whole day. The lid only a convenience to protect from objects falling in. Heat retention is probably less of a concern.

I would also try the competition sets, which are as the name says used to judge or sample teas in competitions.

[TeaTotaling]

@wave_code I remember Lin's Ceramics having one called the Executive Mug. Doing a brief search teasoul.net appears to have some. Hope this helps.

[sheep.payday2]

I was looking at these the other day. There's a F1 exemplar in the well known catalog scans at teartchat, with a green label barely visible on the lid. The text says "marked Zhongguo Yixing". Interestingly enough, elsewhere in the scans the same bowl and mug are introduced as 試茶具 or tea tasting ware.

F1mug.jpg (94.61 KiB) Viewed 15615 times

[Bok]

elsewhere in the scans the same bowl and mug are introduced as 試茶具 or tea tasting ware.

Looks like a Yixing version of standard tea sampling set used for Indian teas (and to some extent, Taiwanese teas). Although the material defeats the purpose in this case...

[sheep.payday2]

@Bok now I see – that would be the "competition set" you suggested above. I never ran into those so I could not make the connection.