fake "glazed" yixings

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Jun 5th, '08, 00:22
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fake "glazed" yixings

by trent » Jun 5th, '08, 00:22

I'm in the market for a yixing pot, but I'm having alot of trouble finding one that I like.

One issue that really bothers me is that many teapots appear to have a coating of slip on their exterior. For those of you who don't have any experience with pottery/ceramics, slip is a solution of liquid clay that is applied to the surface of leatherhard (almost dry) clay before the initial firing. Based on my experiences with slip, the following pots appear to have a coating of slip.

A pot from "5000friend" on ebay, notice the difference in clay on the outside, and the inside of the spout.
Image

Can anyone recommend a source for high quality yixings under $50
(I said that the pots were "glazed" in the title because I didn't think that many people would be familiar with slip)
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Jun 5th, '08, 01:29
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by silverneedles » Jun 5th, '08, 01:29

but what is the significance- slip = bad quality work? = trying to fake age?
to me clay is clay, pottery is pottery as long as it aint got a hole in the bottom... which = trash.
:D
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Jun 5th, '08, 02:04
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by Geekgirl » Jun 5th, '08, 02:04

slip can be an effective way to hide lower quality clays underneath higher quality exterior. More often it is used to finish a rough exterior quickly and easily.

If the quality of clay on the interior is good quality, AND if you are not looking for authenticity, but rather just functionality and esthetics, slip is not a big issue. But if you are collector, you might feel more than just a little bit robbed.

My fave gong-fu pot I'm pretty sure is entirely slipcast. Inside looks exactly like the marks I used to smooth out of green slipcast pottery before glaze and firing.
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Jun 5th, '08, 08:53
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by chrl42 » Jun 5th, '08, 08:53

I don't know what drew you to think it's from slipcast but I have this feeling that it's done with 'shoe polish' to make it look like an antique.

Since antique yixings became so rare and sought-after, floods of people imitated the products.
2 of ways mostly used were, using a shoe polish and boiling teapots with soup of hong cha over and over. And most of cheap yixings used the unfortunate former one.
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Jun 5th, '08, 14:10
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by ABx » Jun 5th, '08, 14:10

chrl42 wrote:I don't know what drew you to think it's from slipcast but I have this feeling that it's done with 'shoe polish' to make it look like an antique.

Since antique yixings became so rare and sought-after, floods of people imitated the products.
2 of ways mostly used were, using a shoe polish and boiling teapots with soup of hong cha over and over. And most of cheap yixings used the unfortunate former one.
That was my thought as well. 5000friends seems to shoe polish pretty much all of his pots, I'd definitely stay away from his stuff. Chinese Teapot Gallery, Dragon Teahouse, and Yunnan Sourcing all have some good stuff.
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by Salsero » Jun 5th, '08, 16:00

5000 Friends has been the subject of controversy, but I have to say I have a nice pot that I bought from them new, and I have heard of other successful purchases there. Unfortunately, I have also heard of other disasters there. Caveat emptor seems to the the rule for that vendor.

Jing and Stéphane Erler at TeaMasters both have nice pots. The prices are not low, however.