Yixing

[Bok]

Adding: some things were only possible to know while having direct comparison with authentic pots next to it.

At some point we had dozens of real ones on the table to study the differences (same shape and size, as well as further ones in different styles and volume). The pots in question were both Shuiping from the 70s proper(before green Label).

[mbanu]

Do Yixing collectors normally look at the provenance of a pot? Things like original sales receipts, photographs of the original owner in which the pot happens to be in the background, etc. With many of the pots, I imagine the original owners are still alive, or that they have only had a couple owners, is that not usually true?

[steanze]

Do Yixing collectors normally look at the provenance of a pot? Things like original sales receipts, photographs of the original owner in which the pot happens to be in the background, etc. With many of the pots, I imagine the original owners are still alive, or that they have only had a couple owners, is that not usually true?

Usually they do not. In many cases valuable teapots are antiques with 100 or more years of age, the original owners are not alive, there are no photographs available, and sales receipts did not exist at the time or were lost.

[Bok]

Do Yixing collectors normally look at the provenance of a pot? Things like original sales receipts, photographs of the original owner in which the pot happens to be in the background, etc. With many of the pots, I imagine the original owners are still alive, or that they have only had a couple owners, is that not usually true?

Usually they do not. In many cases valuable teapots are antiques with 100 or more years of age, the original owners are not alive, there are no photographs available, and sales receipts did not exist at the time or were lost.

+1

There is also very little that this kind of thing could prove. It could always been faked or not real to begin with.

[OCTO]

Do Yixing collectors normally look at the provenance of a pot? Things like original sales receipts, photographs of the original owner in which the pot happens to be in the background, etc. With many of the pots, I imagine the original owners are still alive, or that they have only had a couple owners, is that not usually true?

Usually they do not. In many cases valuable teapots are antiques with 100 or more years of age, the original owners are not alive, there are no photographs available, and sales receipts did not exist at the time or were lost.

+1..... it would a huge load of investigation to do before deciding on a pot. Very often, if it’s a popular pot, the pot would have been snapped up by the time one completes his / her research.

Collectors will place more emphasis on consistencies in workmanship and clay. Paperwork can be easily manipulated.

Cheers!!

[faj]

The Essence of Tea has a couple of inexpensive shuiping half-handmade teapots on offer, which they claim have decent clay :

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https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yi ... ing-teapot

hongni.png (427 KiB) Viewed 7245 times

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https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yi ... ing-teapot

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They also have a julunzhu made with what they call "aged hongni" :

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https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yi ... ju-lun-zhu

aged_hongni.png (498.58 KiB) Viewed 7245 times

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They all have single-hole filters.

At this time, the only Yixing teapot I own is a small modern "zhuni" teapot from M&L, but at some point I would like to experiment a bit more with Yixing clay, especially for Liu Bao which I like a lot. I wonder if pots like these could, as claimed, be expected to be well made with decent clay, keeping in mind I approach this from a tea drinker's perspective, not as a collector.

[Bok]

Only trying them can tell you for sure. Superficially looked at, they seem like decent pots.

[Youzi]

@faj
They clay looks Really nice to my eyes. Natural, well processed.

[polezaivsani]

@faj, those shuipings seem to have walls on the thinner side, which might be not ideal with heat loving teas.

[LeoFox]

@faj
I heard this pot is fantastic for heicha. And given the sterling reputation of the company, and the transparency regarding quality, maybe this one should be considered.

https://teaswelike.com/product/new-qing ... omelo-pot/

[faj]

faj, those shuipings seem to have walls on the thinner side, which might be not ideal with heat loving teas.

I have posted previously on why I think thick walls will probably mean a lower infusion temperature except in specific conditions.

viewtopic.php?p=19339#p19339

The gist is this :

• A teapot, thick or thin, is not going to heat the boiling water you put in it. The best it can do is reduce heat losses.
• A thick teapot will insulate a bit more than a thin one, but that is probably a weaker effect compared to other heat losses (wait time between infusion where evaporative cooling is at work, thermal inertia of the leaves and teapot). Insulation has negligible impact for shot steeps.
• A thick teapot (all other things being equal) will suck up more heat from the water compared to a thin one if both start at the same temperature, unless the teapot is as hot as the water.

If my reasoning is right, heat loving teas require, first and foremost, that time between infusions be kept very short. Since that is not, for better or for worse, how I drink my tea, I think a thin teapot actually achieves higher infusion temperature in (my) real world conditions, especially when using pots that are rather small (higher surface-to-volume ratio) as that increases the impact of thermal inertia relative to that of insulation properties.

[faj]

faj
I heard this pot is fantastic for heicha. And given the sterling reputation of the company, and the transparency regarding quality, maybe this one should be considered.

https://teaswelike.com/product/new-qing ... omelo-pot/

I did see that one. If it were a bit smaller, I might already have one on order. Also, being the aromatics kind of guy that I am, I wonder if the received wisdom of using clay that is a bit more muting for heicha and puer applies to me. I do not feel there is anything that needs muting in the Liu Bao teas I have had, but maybe that would still tilt the balance of the tea in a way that suits me : there is no way to tell without trying. EoT's twin shuipings might be shed some light, allowing me to compare teapots that are very close to being identical except for the clay.

[faj]

Only trying them can tell you for sure. Superficially looked at, they seem like decent pots.

faj
They clay looks Really nice to my eyes. Natural, well processed.

Thanks for chiming in. A few words from you gentlemen mean more than a lot of speculation by a guy like me...

[DailyTX]

@faj
Another for your consideration is EOT 90s di cao qing. I think this was talked about in earlier post. Those pots were order to pair with liu bao tea for the south East Asian market. I have one that I have been using for mid aged Sheng. If they have other shapes, I am more than happy to collect another
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yi ... ing-teapot

[polezaivsani]

faj, those shuipings seem to have walls on the thinner side, which might be not ideal with heat loving teas.

I have posted previously on why I think thick walls will probably mean a lower infusion temperature except in specific conditions.

@faj, thanks a ton for speaking some thermo dynamic sense into my filled with trite analogies head. I appreciate it!