Show Off Your Pots and Cups, Part I

[Chip]

*wants that set*

Is this the one from Houde?

[Salsero]

I got my similar looking ones from Shan Shui Teas

http://www.shanshuiteas.com/product.php ... tegoryID=5

They call it a Paired Fish Teacup Set, but their set comes with a dark red wooden tray rather than the light blond in Mary's pic.

[Mary R]

Why yes, yes it is.

[EDIT: The light blond tray is from a different set. Houde's didn't come with trays...but thanks to Sal, I now know where to get some!]

[bearsbearsbears]

So many indeed! ... and thanks for sharing them.

Are the cups with the little fish swimming on the bottom a common theme in Chinese teaware? They certainly are cute, but do you know of any history or meaning beyond the obvious?

fish represent abundance/surplus/excess, because 'fish' and 'abundance' are homonyms

[go green]

What is an aroma cup and what is a drinking cup? (I'm referring to the swimming fishes cup link. And what would each be used for? Are they both considered tea cups?

[Mary R]

What is an aroma cup and what is a drinking cup?

Well, they're both rather self-explanatory...an aroma cup is a cup used to better get an impression of the tea's scent, and a drinking cup is the cup used to actually drink the tea.

In gong fu styled tea, you would first pour the tea into the aroma cup, then place the drinking cup over the aroma, then invert them to pour the tea into the drinking cup. Then you would smell the aroma cup (I often roll it between my hands as I do...I think the motion and the heat made from my hands and the friction helps to bring out the scent), then slurp the tea.

This YouTube video will give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. (In it, the guy first rinses everything with water, discards the first infusion, then drinks the second.)

This YouTube video shows a slightly more elaborate process, this time using a yixing pot instead of a gaiwan.

Also, the vendor TeaCuppa put out this quick video highlighting other gong fu tools and giving their purposes.

If you're looking to get a set for yourself, my only caution would be to pay close attention to the size the vendor says they are. I love my fish set mostly because it actually is large enough to hold a decent amount of tea. I have another in which the porcelain is more delicate, but the cups are just small enough to be problematic. Then I have another set of just drinking cups that--on a good day--hold about a tablespoon's worth.

[hop_goblin]

Gorgeous pot. Did you say you got that pot from 5,000 Friend on ebay? How did you clean it?

Thanks for the pix.

Thanks Sal, Yes I bought it from 5000friend. Actually, I have read in other forums that he sells zhuni pots when in fact they are not. I lucked out on this one as you can clearly see from the pics that it is not Hongni. As for the cleaning, I jused denture cleaning tabs and hot water. It removed the stains and smell quite well as you can see. Once I did that, I boiled it for 1 hour to remove any residue. I had and expert look at it as well and he believes it is zhuni from the nice "ringing" sound that it makes when tapped and the general texture and smoothness. Interestingly, it is made by the famous studio Er Pu. I believe Guang has posted some information on this studio in a past blog post.

Hop

[Salsero]

Thanks, Hop, for the info. I also bought a pot from 5000Friend a year or so ago (a newly made one) and was also lucky. It is a smallish 70 ml red clay and I suspect that it is the only pot I have that was not slip cast as it came with a Chinese certificate and a photo of a rather rumpled looking young man who is presumably the artist who made it. It also has the best ringing tone of my pots when it is tapped with the knob of the lid.

It only cost about $10 or $15 but the shipping was a least as much as the cost of the pot.

I assume that all the others I have (from Ying at teapotgallery, from YSLLC, and from Kam at FunAlliance) are slip cast since these vendors seem to have several - sometimes many - pots of the same design and none of them came with a certficate.

Those denture tablets sound like the cure all for cleaning old pots.

[Proinsias]

What is an aroma cup and what is a drinking cup?

(I often roll it between my hands as I do...I think the motion and the heat made from my hands and the friction helps to bring out the scent)

Don't forget it will also stimulate all those acupressure points on the palms and will help you appear far more of a tea snob each time you explain this to someone!

[Wesli]

[Atypical]

+a ridiculous collection of coffee mugs, which I usually just end up using.

[Wesli]

Wow, beautiful pieces there Atyp!

[go green]

OK...I'm trying to post a pic of my collection (small as it may be), but I can't seem to figure out how to post the image. Any help for a newbie? Thanks!

[Atypical]

OK...I'm trying to post a pic of my collection (small as it may be), but I can't seem to figure out how to post the image. Any help for a newbie? Thanks!

Host your images somewhere (I use photobucket, for instance), copy the direct link to the image and when you past it into the message field surround it with the tags [ img ] and [ / img] (only without the spaces. The link should look like this.

[ img ]http://www.putyourpicturelinkhere[ / img]

[go green]

Thanks!