Where should I buy authentic Yixing Clay Teaware?

[bagua7]

Definitely NOT QSN. But the clay does perform similarly. I have a few I got scammed on...

Maybe is a hongni? Here's sitting next to a early 90s F1 one (left pot) made of this clay:






I don't know I long lost interest in pots. Sometimes I like to buy a cheap one that seems OK to me (I was searching for aged Liu Bao and came across that Malaysian vendor). I'm not trying to endorse his pots but I quite like the one I got from him though.

I'm also happy with the pots I purchased from oldzisha/5000friends (another eBay vendor):

https://www.ebay.com/sch/oldzisha/m.htm ... pg=&_from=

Got several small shuipings and they brew good tea. Good replicas? Most likely but honestly I don't care since they are very well made and their prices are a steal.

[bagua7]

Hi Guys

Hey. You are based in Sydney, aren't you?

I'm not but maybe we could meet one day before I depart Oz. No culture where I live...let alone Traditional Chinese Culture (even in China this word causes confusion), it's disheartening!

[CheekyChipmunk]

Hey. You are based in Sydney, aren't you?

I'm not but maybe we could meet one day before I depart Oz. No culture where I live...let alone Traditional Chinese Culture (even in China this word causes confusion), it's disheartening!

I’m over in Western Australia actually. Shame! Yes I don’t really have any other friends who I can gong fu with either! If you find yourself out west I’d be happy to meet up and enjoy some tea!

[oolongtimenosee]

I am a vendor who sells modern Yixing Teapots:
https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/c1/mudandleaves.

Same as the pots sold by "Lukevecent" on eBay. Lovely quality and great prices.

I have tasted a 1920s and a mid-60s puerh brewed in a 1800s pot owned by a HK collector and honestly what blew me away was the tea not the pot as we also used a gaiwan as the vendor didn't want the 'damn' clay to steal any of the subtle the nuances of such aged teas and IMO there was no difference whatsoever.

Old pot = modern porcelain = same thing to me.

I'm the same way. When I'm drinking a really nice aged sheng, I always reach for my porcelain gaiwan. I don't want anything interfering with the taste of the tea.

[oolongtimenosee]

I will admit my bias up front: I am a vendor who sells modern Yixing Teapots:
https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/c1/mudandleaves. Factory 1 Teapot enthusiasts also have a bias. I would argue that the production processes for modern Yixing teapots from reputable studios are more transparent than those for F1 teapots (and that's if the F1 teapot you buy really is an F1 and not a fake, which is a hazard for F1 collectors). The craftsmanship for modern teapots is often much better than F1 teapots as well.

Hi Guys. I can’t speak for your Yixing Mr Mudandleaves but I will vouch for an eggshell gaiwan I bought from you a couple of years ago. Really fine stuff!

I would also suggest a newcomer look at the teaswap section of this forum, there are some real steals to be found. Users here tend to be more honest than most vendors and will usually sell at retail or below instead of trying to mark up prices. Also, if you are drinking alone wanting to Gong fu your tea then buy smaller than you think you want/need to. The pot will probably still be too big! Good luck... and send pictures, we always like seeing other people’s pots!

Cheers! Glad to hear you're enjoying the gaiwan.

[Youzi-遊子]

I think chawangshop has some good starter teapots, I really liked their 90s zini teapots, they were my first post, and wasn't disappointed in them.

They were muting, but not too much, so perfect for young sheng puer, to take away the astringency and bitterness. Also, it develops a patina quite quickly.

My opinion about the old vs new, and magic clay vs not magic clay, is, that the new pots can be just as good as the old pots. Zisha clay didn't disappear or went extinct and Benshan clay not better, from a tea drinkers point of view, than clay from another mine near Dingshan.
Huang Long Shan was famous, because many kind and types of clay could be found there, which were also easier to work with and fire, in general.
So better quality teapots could be made from them, but with modern technology, especially with electric kilns, they can control the temperature quite well.

So a good modern pot is a safer bet for quality, then an old pot, especially factory 1, since there's so many fakes of them online. Maybe an older not factory pot has a higher chance of not being fake.

Tl;dr: you can still get all the rare and "magical" clays with new pots, which has better craftsmanship then most of the old pots. What you should consider is if it's a "rare magical" clay then usually the miners are selling it for a higher price for the craftsmen, so the price of the teapot should be more too.
Example: don't expect to get a real Ben Shan Lüni teapot under around 200$.

[jayinhk]

Definitely NOT QSN. But the clay does perform similarly. I have a few I got scammed on...

Maybe is a hongni? Here's sitting next to a early 90s F1 one (left pot) made of this clay:






I don't know I long lost interest in pots. Sometimes I like to buy a cheap one that seems OK to me (I was searching for aged Liu Bao and came across that Malaysian vendor). I'm not trying to endorse his pots but I quite like the one I got from him though.

I'm also happy with the pots I purchased from oldzisha/5000friends (another eBay vendor):

https://www.ebay.com/sch/oldzisha/m.htm ... pg=&_from=

Got several small shuipings and they brew good tea. Good replicas? Most likely but honestly I don't care since they are very well made and their prices are a steal.

Yes, good replica clay. May not even be from Yixing! I can actually tell it isn't real QSN from the smell alone.

[12Tea]

I find that the focus in discussions on this forum is always about clay. The teapots I've bought, are always based on the appearance. I know when I like a teapot for its looks and I can for sure see when it's handmade or not, and judge how good the craftsmanship is. However, I can never know whether the clay is authentic or not. What I do know is that a badly made Yixing teapot (whether handmade or not) is very unlikely to be from authentic clay.

[Zared]

I think chawangshop has some good starter teapots, I really liked their 90s zini teapots, they were my first post, and wasn't disappointed in them.

They were muting, but not too much, so perfect for young sheng puer, to take away the astringency and bitterness. Also, it develops a patina quite quickly.

My opinion about the old vs new, and magic clay vs not magic clay, is, that the new pots can be just as good as the old pots. Zisha clay didn't disappear or went extinct and Benshan clay not better, from a tea drinkers point of view, than clay from another mine near Dingshan.
Huang Long Shan was famous, because many kind and types of clay could be found there, which were also easier to work with and fire, in general.
So better quality teapots could be made from them, but with modern technology, especially with electric kilns, they can control the temperature quite well.

So a good modern pot is a safer bet for quality, then an old pot, especially factory 1, since there's so many fakes of them online. Maybe an older not factory pot has a higher chance of not being fake.

Tl;dr: you can still get all the rare and "magical" clays with new pots, which has better craftsmanship then most of the old pots. What you should consider is if it's a "rare magical" clay then usually the miners are selling it for a higher price for the craftsmen, so the price of the teapot should be more too.
Example: don't expect to get a real Ben Shan Lüni teapot under around 200$.

Authentic F1 pots are not hard to find. The fear of fakes is a bit overblown and is generally trumped by people that don’t own many if any at all.

Vintage non f1? The likelihood of non yixing clay or chemicals poses a significantly problem.

[Youzi-遊子]

I think chawangshop has some good starter teapots, I really liked their 90s zini teapots, they were my first post, and wasn't disappointed in them.

They were muting, but not too much, so perfect for young sheng puer, to take away the astringency and bitterness. Also, it develops a patina quite quickly.

My opinion about the old vs new, and magic clay vs not magic clay, is, that the new pots can be just as good as the old pots. Zisha clay didn't disappear or went extinct and Benshan clay not better, from a tea drinkers point of view, than clay from another mine near Dingshan.
Huang Long Shan was famous, because many kind and types of clay could be found there, which were also easier to work with and fire, in general.
So better quality teapots could be made from them, but with modern technology, especially with electric kilns, they can control the temperature quite well.

So a good modern pot is a safer bet for quality, then an old pot, especially factory 1, since there's so many fakes of them online. Maybe an older not factory pot has a higher chance of not being fake.

Tl;dr: you can still get all the rare and "magical" clays with new pots, which has better craftsmanship then most of the old pots. What you should consider is if it's a "rare magical" clay then usually the miners are selling it for a higher price for the craftsmen, so the price of the teapot should be more too.
Example: don't expect to get a real Ben Shan Lüni teapot under around 200$.

Authentic F1 pots are not hard to find. The fear of fakes is a bit overblown and is generally trumped by people that don’t own many if any at all.

Vintage non f1? The likelihood of non yixing clay or chemicals poses a significantly problem.

If you buy an f1 pot from a reputable seller, who specializes in selling old factory pots, like for example Chawangshop, then yes, it's not hard to find, but I wouldn't buy an f1 pot from ebay or taobao, but for the price of an f1 pot, you could buy a better quality new pot with better clay.

[TEAMOOD]

Most Yixing pots, now and vintage are never fully handmade. Partially moulds are used. Fully handmade is either pre-Yixing factory 1 or modern, both are very very expensive. 500 minimum, if you can even get it, demand is high.

Fully handmade modern Yixing teapot prices begin at around $200, but these are not by famous or ranked artists and they are often of simple shapes (xishi, shipiao). There are plenty of artists making fully handmade teapots in China and they are not difficult to find. The prices for teapots made by ranked and recognized artists is much higher (can be $1000 and up).

Anyways, you do not need fully handmade, standard part manual, part mould is perfectly fine.

Yes, these are the "half-handmade" teapots. This is a very old (traditional) technique and there is no difference in the clay if it is made this way or fully handmade.

Clay is more tricky. The good and pure clays mostly ran out a while ago, decades, or what is left is now scarce and usually made into premium priced pots. Most modern clay is a blend of one kind of clay or the other, sometimes not sure what exactly... so a tiny possible health risk

The report of Yixing clay's extinction was greatly exaggerated. There is plenty of zisha (Yixing clay) being mined, processed and aged every year. This is especially true for zini (purple clay) that makes up the vast bulk of ore being mined.

Which is why many prefer to buy factory pots as the clay is mostly still pure. That does not have to be expensive, 90s pots can be affordable and even under 100-200 USD. A modern teapot of a good contemporary artist, Chinese, Japanese, Western or other won't be any less either, likely more. If you browse this or other forums there are quite a few reputable sources selling Yixing teaware, not to forget the tea swap section here...

Depends on what you mean by pure. There is "pure," only consisting of original zisha ore mixed together. Many recipes for zisha clay are mixes of more than one kind of zisha. This was true before and is still true today. There is also "pure," meaning only one kind of ore. You can find both kinds in any reputable studio today.

I will admit my bias up front: I am a vendor who sells modern Yixing Teapots:
https://www.mudandleaves.com/store/c1/mudandleaves. Factory 1 Teapot enthusiasts also have a bias. I would argue that the production processes for modern Yixing teapots from reputable studios are more transparent than those for F1 teapots (and that's if the F1 teapot you buy really is an F1 and not a fake, which is a hazard for F1 collectors). The craftsmanship for modern teapots is often much better than F1 teapots as well.

Thumb up!

[TEAMOOD]

I enjoyed a lot viewing all posts from the 1st to last.
some are right about the truth, some are way too far.

As a local of Yixing, welcome all to PM me in future. I will provide subjective advices.

[TEAMOOD]

I enjoyed a lot viewing all posts from the 1st to last.
some are right about the truth, some are way too far.

As a local of Yixing, welcome all to PM me in future. I will provide subjective advices.

[chineseteainengland]

I would welcome advice about sources of good quality yixing teapot in England, or sellers who will ship to England. Purity of the clay would be the first concern for me.

[chineseteainengland]

Where to buy in England, or available to send to England, a pot with good quality pure clay?