Best Sources for Yixing Teapots

[odarwin]

i think its a matter of taste when it comes to pot styles, but artistic really is very general term... if you are looking for animals and what nots, then generally, id be cautious about the clay, with my limited knowledge, if there are "elaborate" colors, and its just 30 buks, then id stay away from it... plus, these pots might be a pain to clean... but i never had one so i really cant tell for sure... i always go for the simple design, classic shapes not much lines, elegant...

in my experience in china, there are better quality animal and what not pots, and there are the not so good quality ones, usually, you can tell at once if its of better quality, provided that you hold, and see lots of other pots often
the nicest one ive seen is in a shape of a gold fish, with 2 small goldfish in the bottom of the pot and one on the lid, all have movable eyes, i guess its a pain to clean, especially with those moving eyes hehehe

-darwin

[Salsero]

What about this one? FunAlliance Double Dragon I have no idea what kind of quality these pots are, but maybe someone else has ordered from him before.

I have two pots from FunAlliance -- my biggest and my smallest pots -- and they are both excellent quality materials and craftsmanship. I will likely never order a pot again from Kam because of serious mis-communication about the size of one in particular. After negotiating a price and size, I was expecting a pot of 150 ml and received one twice that size!

But if size is not critical for you (as it is for me), I would not hesitate to order again based on the quality of his pots. They are not bargain basement prices, but they are not robbery either.

If I were in your position, however, I would take T4Texas's suggestion and look closely at Chinese TeaPot Gallery's over $24 pots. There seem to be some fine pieces there at very reasonable prices, the shipping price and speed are excellent, and you can email Ying (I think that is the proprietor's name) for details about a particular piece.

[t4texas]

Here are a few from CTG you may find interesting. I find them interesting, too. I would not use them to brew tea, however, prefering more traditional, elegant, simple shapes, although I have picked up a few along the way that are not. The one thing I am pretty confident in, is that the prices at CTG are fair for what you get. You will not get a $200 pot for $35 and you will not get a $3 pot for $35. You'll get a $35 pot for $35.


Tree Trunk shape:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CHINESE-YIXING- ... m153.l1262


Frog Lotus shape:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CHINESE-YIXING- ... m153.l1262


Three Gong Chun pots. I have seen the least expensive one, but not the other two.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CHINESE-YIXING- ... m153.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CHINESE-YIXING- ... m153.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CHINESE-YIXING- ... m153.l1262


I have seen one of these two. These are definitely display pieces.

Bamboo Lizard shape:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHINESE-YIXING-ZISH ... m153.l1262

Tree Lizard shape.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-CHINESE-YIXING- ... m153.l1262

[betta]

Ebay Taiwan or 5000friend on Ebay as well.

5000friend on Ebay sells mostly fake vintages so I would

Seems Maitre Tea cares more about the shape and volume of the pot rather than the age. As long as it's made of yixing clay, he/she might consider it.
But if those pots aren't made of yixing clay, that will be another story.

[chrl42]

deeho.com

I mean, think about it.

That site seems to be the only site that displays masters such as Zhu Dan, Zhu Bin who are certificated by Chinese goverment and who are queued on the list of Chinese and Taiwanese yixing lovers.

That site seems to be the only site that carries clay such as Huang Long #4 Di Cao Qing, Zhuni or Hei Xing Sha, the sought-after clay from genuine sources.

I was just saying this because I saw some word like 'artistic'. And I am sure there are many pots that are 'useful' or 'good' to use that are available out there. It was just my opinions, from the bashing guy.

[hop_goblin]

Ebay Taiwan or 5000friend on Ebay as well.

5000friend on Ebay sells mostly fake vintages so I would

They are not fake vintages. They are not mean't to be sold as true Qing and if you did, than you did not do your homework. The majority of his stock are "inspired" Qing. I own a number of his pots and have alway been pleased. Of course they are not Qing at 100 USD this would be an impossiblity. But even pots that were made 20, 30 years ago are far better quality than the crap that is out on the market today.

[t4texas]

deeho.com

I mean, think about it.

That site seems to be the only site that displays masters such as Zhu Dan, Zhu Bin who are certificated by Chinese goverment and who are queued on the list of Chinese and Taiwanese yixing lovers.

That site seems to be the only site that carries clay such as Huang Long #4 Di Cao Qing, Zhuni or Hei Xing Sha, the sought-after clay from genuine sources.

I was just saying this because I saw some word like 'artistic'. And I am sure there are many pots that are 'useful' or 'good' to use that are available out there. It was just my opinions, from the bashing guy.

Yes, I had looked at that great site a couple of times after you recommended it, Charles, but he has a limit of about $200, so I did not mention it.

[Maitre_Tea]

Thanks for all the good links, people...
I guess I'm fascinated with teapots in the shapes of dragons and other animals and what not, but at the same time I want to actually use these kinds of teapots.
I realize that these animal-themed teapots are large because there's more space to work with, but I'm not a big fan of large teapots...so I guess I want my cake and be able to eat it too.


I guess what I want specifically is something like this, where the handle sweeps upward. I saw one where the handle was a tree branch, and the actual teapot was in the shape of a peach, so it looked really cool.

Only problem: it was around 300 ml, not good for my own gong fu cha purposes...

[wyardley]

Ebay Taiwan or 5000friend on Ebay as well.

5000friend on Ebay sells mostly fake vintages so I would

They are not fake vintages. They are not mean't to be sold as true Qing and if you did, than you did not do your homework. The majority of his stock are "inspired" Qing. I own a number of his pots and have alway been pleased. Of course they are not Qing at 100 USD this would be an impossiblity. But even pots that were made 20, 30 years ago are far better quality than the crap that is out on the market today.

I don't know what they say now, but I have a distinct recollection of him referring to pots as "Qing Dynasty pots"; I don't remember him qualifying the statement at all. Can you give us a link showing where he's saying that the pots aren't actually Qing Dynasty?

I am no expert, and I'll defer to Tim and Kyle on this one, but I would bet that most of his pots are made very recently, not 20 or 30 years ago. That's not to say that some of them aren't pretty good fakes.

[betta]

What Hop's trying to say up there is to ask everyone to think whether it is possible to get a real Qing Dynasty Pot at those prices.
Or I may reformulate the question to an extreme case:
Is it possible to get 1kg Pure Gold by spending 1US$?
You don't need to lay your hand on a burning steel to know that it is hot.

[wyardley]

What Hop's trying to say up there is to ask everyone to think whether it is possible to get a real Qing Dynasty Pot at those prices.
Or I may reformulate the question to an extreme case:
Is it possible to get 1kg Pure Gold by spending 1US$?
You don't need to lay your hand on a burning steel to know that it is hot.

Right, but I don't think it's good to support / encourage people to support a vendor who is very obviously engaging in false advertising, because there are a lot of people who either don't know that these prices are very implausible, and because there are also a lot of people who want to believe.

And assuming we're operating on the premise that he is selling modern pots which are made to look like antiques, there may well be more un-natural ingredients (either in the clay blend itself or in the process used to distress the pots) than one would find in a cheap, low quality, brand new pot.

[betta]

Right, but I don't think it's good to support / encourage people to support a vendor who is very obviously engaging in false advertising, because there are a lot of people who either don't know that these prices are very implausible, and because there are also a lot of people who want to believe.

And assuming we're operating on the premise that he is selling modern pots which are made to look like antiques, there may well be more un-natural ingredients (either in the clay blend itself or in the process used to distress the pots) than one would find in a cheap, low quality, brand new pot.

Unfortunately the practice of selling things this way is common in china. I found couple of the other so-called ebay vendors also practise the same thing but less visibly.

I'd like to point out the case where I translated into english as: even in a clean room, a dust still exist. In Beijing there's a renowned government-run chinese medicine pharmacy runs since the Qing dynasty. Their specialty is one very famous pill (I don't know the exact name, but fairy tale even tells us it can bring comma patient to conciousness). There they sell 2 grades: "normal pill" and "superior pill".
In Shenzhen, the chinese traditional medicine doctor hospital informs that the "normal pills" are effectively useless while the "superior pills" are good.
If it happens with medicine, I wouldn't doubt if other sectors will be the same.
Conclusion: a reputable vendor sells both good and bad (might be fake) products as well.

[hop_goblin]

Right, but I don't think it's good to support / encourage people to support a vendor who is very obviously engaging in false advertising, because there are a lot of people who either don't know that these prices are very implausible, and because there are also a lot of people who want to believe.

And assuming we're operating on the premise that he is selling modern pots which are made to look like antiques, there may well be more un-natural ingredients (either in the clay blend itself or in the process used to distress the pots) than one would find in a cheap, low quality, brand new pot.

Unfortunately the practice of selling things this way is common in china. I found couple of the other so-called ebay vendors also practise the same thing but less visibly.

I'd like to point out the case where I translated into english as: even in a clean room, a dust still exist. In Beijing there's a renowned government-run chinese medicine pharmacy runs since the Qing dynasty. Their specialty is one very famous pill (I don't know the exact name, but fairy tale even tells us it can bring comma patient to conciousness). There they sell 2 grades: "normal pill" and "superior pill".
In Shenzhen, the chinese traditional medicine doctor hospital informs that the "normal pills" are effectively useless while the "superior pills" are good.
If it happens with medicine, I wouldn't doubt if other sectors will be the same.
Conclusion: a reputable vendor sells both good and bad (might be fake) products as well.

Thank you Betta.. exactly.

Many "contemporary pots" are signed with Meng chen, yi-gong and so forth.. Not really their signatures.. just inspired by the artist. I guess the point is.. that many people in the Yixing game have the understanding that you can not buy a Qing at 100USD, I would also have to disagree with the idea that many of these pots are "new". If you examine the clays, and compared the craftmanship with the industiral slip stuff that is on the market.. No comparison.. many of his pots were made before the 1990s Taiwan Yixing craze. Well said betta.






Look at this pot and notice the textures and wrinkles and quality of the clay.. compare this to the whale up at top... this is a 5000friend pot

[wyardley]

Many "contemporary pots" are signed with Meng chen, yi-gong and so forth.. Not really their signatures.. just inspired by the artist. I guess the point is.. that many people in the Yixing game have the understanding that you can not buy a Qing at 100USD, I would also have to disagree with the idea that many of these pots are "new". If you examine the clays, and compared the craftmanship with the industiral slip stuff that is on the market.. No comparison.. many of his pots were made before the 1990s Taiwan Yixing craze. Well said betta.

I have seen some of the pots (owned one, and Danica and some other local folks own a bunch), and I agree that they seem to be old, and made of good clay, however, I have also seen a couple of pots that I know to be fake (one, in particular, stands out because the vendor told me himself that it was cheaper than his other pots, because it wasn't lao zhu ni, though I'm fairly sure his other pots were also "modern" zhu ni), which also look and sound like antique pots, other than not being distressed.

There's the issue of how he gets access to a seemingly unlimited supply of old pots, made from fairly rare clays, (even if they're only 20 or 30 years old, it's difficult to find such pots in good condition in China now -- you might find them, but the workmanship isn't going to be as good as the ones 5000 friend sells at anywhere near those prices). Of course, teapots have a long history in China, but they're still very sought after by collectors in China, Taiwan, HK, Malaysia, etc. While no one can say for sure, to me, the simplest explanation is that the pots are made new, and subsequently distressed. Or maybe he's a grave robber....

The Chinese have thousands of years of experience as master forgers (and I mean that mostly as a compliment), so while it's possible that some of his pots are old, to think that it's impossible to make pots today that look, sound, and feel like the ones 5000friend sells is, IMHO, very naïve.

If anyone has access to reliable technology for dating clay within a narrow period of time, I think edkreuger has a broken 5000Friend pot that got broken when I shipped it to him - maybe he would be willing to donate one of the fragments to science.

[gingkoseto]

About those ebay sellers who claim their pots as Qing dynasty's or earlier, even if the price is reasonable, I don't think it's a good business practice and such practice undermines trust between seller and customer. Once I tried to search "chinese, teapot" on ebay, more than half search results were those fake stuff, and it was very annoying.

I think, just because there are so many fake ones, nowadays the decent teapots costs more than they should. Because you've got to pay the pot, plus you've got to pay extra for the reliability credit of supplier because there are so many unreliable ones out there. By the same token, frequently, even a good seller would overprice their pots, because they have to strive to compete against those who sell fake pots.