Not my F1 Yixing, Wished it Were!!

[kyarazen]

Were wood fired pots only seen during the pre factory 1 days?
Love the texture on the clay, though

yup! wood fired in dragon kiln mostly during pre-factory days. more commonly in qing to ROC. in early 60s they moved on to the downdraft kiln which uses coal

[pedant]

this picture is cropped from the one posted by Bat Omega on FB, and reposted with his blessings
but instead of posting the answer straight, lets have some fun and guess work, which is the new seal and which is old? amongst these 3?

Nice summary. Are you referring to the 4-leg Shi seal? I though 4-legged Shi is only for pots of 1930-1950s. If I am wrong, and there is 1960s 4 legged Shi, can you share with us on the details of the hidden seal to distinguish early 2000 and 60s 4-leg seal. I guess I am as confused as many chatters here.

i'm going to guess that the one on the center is the re-carved seal with the hidden flaw -- the upper left and lower right corners of the seal outline/border have irregularities. am i right?

[AT333]

Were wood fired pots only seen during the pre factory 1 days?
Love the texture on the clay, though

yup! wood fired in dragon kiln mostly during pre-factory days. more commonly in qing to ROC. in early 60s they moved on to the downdraft kiln which uses coal

Is it possible to tell whether it is wood or coal fired by looking at the teapot? What is downdraft kiln and how many types of kiln are there? Thank you.

[kyarazen]

Were wood fired pots only seen during the pre factory 1 days?
Love the texture on the clay, though

yup! wood fired in dragon kiln mostly during pre-factory days. more commonly in qing to ROC. in early 60s they moved on to the downdraft kiln which uses coal

Is it possible to tell whether it is wood or coal fired by looking at the teapot? What is downdraft kiln and how many types of kiln are there? Thank you.

hmm.... you ask difficult questions!
in summary of what i had observed so far :

1) Ever since F1's inception, they never used the dragon kiln, starting with the downdraft (that is fueled by coal or oil), then in '73 they moved on to tunnel for better efficiency and throughput (coal/oil fired), and subsequently in the later years there are additional kilns like shuttle, pushboard, and finally electrical.

2) Firing since the 60s, most small pots were fired in huge clay canisters that protected the pots from dust, specks, flying glaze, ash and all that. so the surfaces of pots since 60s are flawlessly clean. the only black spots that are seen are so called "molten" iron spots.

3) the surface texture is affected also by the mould used.

4) downdraft kiln reaches great temperatures, but there is a larger temperature gradient, so pots at the extreme locations could be a bit different from each other. if in the cooler regions, the pots are orangey red, if in the hotter regions they are dark red (usually less common since there are quite careful with the max temp).

5) dragon kiln, which is usually wood fired, the clays under go long durations of firing (weeks?), and the pots experience cyclic oxidation and reduction repeatedly throughout the week (this is why lin's ceramics carry out cyclic oxd/red on their purion wares).

i tend to think that wood fired wares, there is a higher chance that deep in the clay (if you crack it open), the insides are black for hong-ni/zhuni, because the core of the clay is "reduced", only the surface is oxidized.

without breaking the pot, the other hints are the interior of the pot, and also looking under the scope trying to look "beyond" the surface. pots with darker cores tend to look deeper in color tone.

not a foolproof way definitely, in some areas along the dragon kiln, if the air flow is good, there are some that would have lighter cores. and also if the pot had been buried, or sunken in the sea, the core will also become lighter

long story short, if one plays with F1 pots, nope they are non-dragon kilned. to have a stronger dragon kiln feel for yixing, one has to look at ROC pots to Qing

[Tead Off]

Just thinking about how reduction works in this case. You mention that the inner core gets reduced, leaving the outer surface (interior and exterior) reddish. I would have thought it would happen in exactly the reverse order, first exterior darkens, then core.

In Japanese pots, often in Tokoname, you see the darkening mixed with the original clay color on the surface when reduction is not done to completion.

Any comments on this?

[kyarazen]

Just thinking about how reduction works in this case. You mention that the inner core gets reduced, leaving the outer surface (interior and exterior) reddish. I would have thought it would happen in exactly the reverse order, first exterior darkens, then core.

In Japanese pots, often in Tokoname, you see the darkening mixed with the original clay color on the surface when reduction is not done to completion.

Any comments on this?

that is if you do reduction firing that they purpose want to achieve

in the dragon kiln, the aim is still oxidation firing, but the method, over the week, the wares fluctates between oxidation and reduction due to the fuel used. if you have seen an unfired hong ni ware, the ware is yellow ochre color, after firing it becomes red.

in modern kilns, the firing is oxidation all the way

[kyarazen]

Can Yixing be slip casted or has it ever been slip casted...........

the answer is.... yes!!

here's a rare pot courtesy of Biao Zhun Hu on FB, Taiwan













upon the inception of F1 in '58, there were lots of ideas on how to improve throughput and productivity. Someone suggested using slip casting. And so they milled yixing clay for days into a fine slurry, and attempted to slip cast them using plaster molds (since plaster absorbs water). 3 models were supposedly tested by slip casting, the tang po (which we call as biandeng now), the roubian and xishi, with the xishi being the rarest! (its been said that the 60s 6 char xishi is one of the rarest F1 pots)

but soon after attempting slip casting, a lot of problems arose, one that the clay being too finely milled, easily warped (the lids of many of these pots show the warpage)... the pots after having dried, stuck to their moulds and irreversibly damaged upon extrication. post extrication, it was hard to fix/correct the pot unlike regular molded rougher clay. as such, in 1960, the method was declared a failure and was no longer continued.

the "tangpo" or biandeng pictured here is made by slipcasting in '58-60. the texture of these pots are really nice and smooth, delicate.

[AT333]

Beautiful pot. Thanks for sharing.

[steanze]

Thanks a lot for the information! There's just so little information available in English on yixing pots, forum discussions like these are a really nice contribution making information available to teapot appreciators outside China

[AT333]

I am itching for some nice pot images. Anyone out there to share?

[kyarazen]

I am itching for some nice pot images. Anyone out there to share?

your wish is my command!

60's Gao Tang Po courtesy of 吳燕青, taiwan.
A new member on the groups but his first few posts were already top notch items

highly sought after! not many pieces were made, and not really exported to south east asia. this was supposedly one of the designs that Gu Jing Zhou had adapted from a late qing pot design for the mould creation. to own a piece of the 60s GTP easily puts you into a respected status amongst collectors

[AT333]

Wow! Thanks! Beautiful 60s pot. I bet the curves are nicer than the later version of this pot.

[BW85]

Wow ... That GTP... Drool...

[kyarazen]

Wow! Thanks! Beautiful 60s pot. I bet the curves are nicer than the later version of this pot.

yeap! the curves are way nicer than the 80s version of this.
end 60s to 70s still same mold

here's a pair of 60-70s GTP courtesy of Biao Zhun Hu, FB/Taiwan

[kyarazen]

something interesting and rare

Gao Quan Fa (Koh Choon Huat) tea merchants in malaysia is an old tea company and in the 60s had commissioned pots from Yixing. tea was expensive! and pots were often given as gifts with a reasonable purchase of a certain tea. Here's a 12 cup (150ml) Ye Ming Zhu (luminous pearl) that belongs to Biao Zhun Hu, Taiwan. Ye Ming Zhu was the name of a tea that the tea merchant had carried in the 60s. There is another sought after version of this pot, which has Xiao Hong Pao carved on it, but in terms of quantity, the YMZ is more than two times rarer than the XHP since lesser were made.