English-language Yixing books

[Victoria]

Must Haves:
Gu Jingzhou's book - 宜兴紫砂珍赏
Zhu Zewei‘s "The Book" about yixing clay - 宜兴紫砂矿料

May worth checking these out too:
About Antique Zhuni pots, heard they are good, but haven't got the chance to check them:
朱泥壶的世界 -- Got recommended by a Master supposedly has nice shapes of Mengchen teapots
朱泥宝记
荆溪朱泥

Gingko_Seto has a copy on his eBay store https://www.ebay.com/itm/261866128576

That's way overpriced, maybe because it's a special edition? I got mine for a couple 100 rmb I think.

Yes, it says special edition. Is your’s hardcover and come with a sample of clay? Also, Global Tea Hut has an issue devoted to Gu Jingzhou.

[Youzi]

Gingko_Seto has a copy on his eBay store https://www.ebay.com/itm/261866128576

That's way overpriced, maybe because it's a special edition? I got mine for a couple 100 rmb I think.

Yes, it says special edition. Is your’s hardcover and come with a sample of clay? Also, Global Tea Hut has an issue devoted to Gu Jingzhou.

yes, hard cover and no clay.

[DailyTX]

Gingko_Seto has a copy on his eBay store https://www.ebay.com/itm/261866128576

That's way overpriced, maybe because it's a special edition? I got mine for a couple 100 rmb I think.

Yes, it says special edition. Is your’s hardcover and come with a sample of clay? Also, Global Tea Hut has an issue devoted to Gu Jingzhou.

I think the special edition maybe out of print. I got my copy in Hong Kong about 2-3 years ago for 800-1000HKD

[mbanu]

Another group of auction-catalog pots, this time from the Leonard Joel auction house in Australia. Apparently these were collected by an Australian living in Singapore. The interesting bit here (for me anyways) is that all these pots were bought from potters who are still alive, although if the New York Times article is correct, that might not make any difference.

[DailyTX]

Here is a Yixing book with English translation based on the K.S. Lo Collection from the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware in Hong Kong. I think it's from the 1990s.

[mbanu]

Another group of auction-catalog pots, this time from the Leonard Joel auction house in Australia. Apparently these were collected by an Australian living in Singapore. The interesting bit here (for me anyways) is that all these pots were bought from potters who are still alive, although if the New York Times article is correct, that might not make any difference.

A bit more info on Liu Jianfei from a Yixing potter fan-site, if Google translate is treating me well:

Born in Yixing, the pottery city in 1969, he was engaged in the handmade design of purple clay pots in 1988. In 1996, he was under the guidance of the national ceramic arts and crafts master Ji Yishun, and won the careful guidance of the master. The modeling process has made great progress and the innovative concept has been extremely high Recognition, a newer understanding of the relationship between traditional crafts and purple clay pots. In 2002, he graduated from the Jiangsu Zisha Art Modeling Design Class, and in 2004, he graduated from the Suzhou Arts and Crafts Class. In 2005, he was invited to a solo exhibition in Singapore to be a complete success and was awarded the honorary title of "Superior Pot Art" by the Chinatown Tea Friends Association.. (http://www.teapot360.com/2398.html)

A plausible reason for these pots to have been in Singapore, maybe? "Solo exhibition" is a little vague, as there are exhibitions where an artist's work is displayed, and "exhibitions" where an artist's work is sold. A catalog would clear it up, maybe.

[Bok]

Don’t think Yixing ware needs a plausible reason to be found in Singapore, lots of tea enthusiasts with deep pockets there...

[Chadrinkincat]

SG is like 76% Chinese. I’d be shock if there wasn’t many yixing collectors there

[mbanu]

A while back, I had to order some other books, and discovered an English-language museum-exhibition catalog published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Art Museum -- at $3 US, it was hard to resist adding it on. It arrived a couple days ago, and while this thread has suggested that it might not be helpful for its original purpose, I thought I'd give the details anyways.

The Art and Culture of Yixing Zisha Stoneware, an exhibition from 2015 -- https://cup.cuhk.edu.hk/index.php?route ... ct_id=3317 The Yixing personality in this case is Terese Tse Bartholowmew, who through a series of interesting coincidences became the closest thing there seems to be to an American authority on Yixing teaware.

24 pages, and stapled magazine format -- it looks like it will handle neglect well, but any amount of reading and it will start looking a little ratty.

One thing folks might like is that it acknowledges the counterfeits right up front, and tries to give a brief outline of different counterfeiting eras, although due to the nature of the exhibition it skips the 1990s boom and mostly focuses on the Qing-era and Republican-era counterfeits. As the exhibition was made up primarily of the donated collections of two Hong Kongers, there aren't really any wild artistic pots like that frog pot. The closest is a counterfeit Chen Mingyuan Three Friends pot that they think was really made by Jiang Yanting.

This catalog also helped me in a minor way by explaining those Yixing teapots that are on three tall legs, which I struggle not to grin at when I see, as though Yixing teapots stand upright when feeling threatened. Apparently these are based on an old Chinese wine pot design. (If I wasn't convinced I would break one of the legs, I'd be tempted to get one of these.)

[mbanu]

https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/ ... t_0521.pdf

The Flagstaff House Museum of Teaware posted the file for their latest exhibition pamphlet online. Not actually very useful, but maybe helpful for the person who wanders up and asks, "...are those teapots??"

[mbanu]

They did have some nice info in an earlier pamphlet describing K.S. Lo and the museum generally, though, that outlined that first visit to Yixing: https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/ ... b-%2br.pdf

[mbanu]

A bit off-topic, but if anyone is looking for a French-language Yixing exhibition catalog, the Royal Museum of Mariemont in Belgium publishes one from a collaboration in 2009: http://www.musee-mariemont.be/index.php ... f7f34cafad

[mbanu]

This is an interesting one to me because it blurs together museum and auction-house, as it is from an exhibition in a Canadian museum owned by a Chinese auction-house that is in turn owned by the Chinese government. Mostly English, although sadly they don't translate the potter's biographies. (I like the idea of drinking pu'er out of a barfing pig -- wonder what the story is on that design... )

http://polyculture.us/wp-content/upload ... 180217.pdf

[Chadrinkincat]

@mbanu
Any pictures of that you can post of that counterfeit Chen Mingyuan Three Friends pot? I’d be curious to see how it compares to the styling of later factory versions.

[mbanu]

mbanu
Any pictures of that you can post of that counterfeit Chen Mingyuan Three Friends pot? I’d be curious to see how it compares to the styling of later factory versions.

Some nice high-resolution photos: http://www.artmuseum.cuhk.edu.hk/en/col ... etail/8783