Essence of Tea new yixing

[wei301]

Yes, I can see the quality is very good, I love every bit of it, apart from the smell ...

The surface on the outside feels a bit oily / greasy when washing it under running water. should I try to use a soft scourer to rub the outside?

Try to clean the outside with some baking soda. If it doesn't work, try a solution of 50% bleach and 50% water, leaving the teapot in it for at least 24 hours. If it doesn't work, trash the pot.

Thanks.

[theredbaron]

essence of tea has now some 80's factory 1 Shui Ping, the chance for many people to get a pot which is not so easy to get in the west:

https://www.essenceoftea.com/teaware/cl ... -ping.html

https://www.essenceoftea.com/blog/2016/ ... -february/

[Frisbeehead]

essence of tea has now some 80's factory 1 Shui Ping, the chance for many people to get a pot which is not so easy to get in the west:

https://www.essenceoftea.com/teaware/cl ... -ping.html

https://www.essenceoftea.com/blog/2016/ ... -february/

£72, not bad. That's about $101.

Man if I didn't just buy a yixing pot from that eBay seller, I would have seriously considered this one. It's not often that you run across a factory 1 pot I suppose though. Hmm.

[Puerlife]

They are going fast.

[thirst]

An 80’s Factory 1 pot for 72 GBP?

As an amateur, there are three things I have been lead, or have lead myself, to believe about Yixing pots:

1) Older pots usually have better clay
2) Factory 1 pots are very good and pretty rare
3) Old(ish) pots are very expensive

85 ml – I like this, too.

So what am I missing? Are these pots comparatively cheap because 80’s pots are not as good as, say, 50’s or 60’s pots?

[kyarazen]

An 80’s Factory 1 pot for 72 GBP?

As an amateur, there are three things I have been lead, or have lead myself, to believe about Yixing pots:

1) Older pots usually have better clay
2) Factory 1 pots are very good and pretty rare
3) Old(ish) pots are very expensive

85 ml – I like this, too.

So what am I missing? Are these pots comparatively cheap because 80’s pots are not as good as, say, 50’s or 60’s pots?

you are missing the details! the pots do not simply go by the "decades" i.e. 80s, 90s, 00s. there are several paradigm shifts or technological or material changes from time to time and the eras can be distinguished to a finer extent.

not sure if it is appropriate for me to do a quick summary here though

[jayinhk]

Please do, I for one would love to learn more!

[thirst]

+1

[Drax]

My guess would be late 80s, early 90s, but would be curious to hear more, too!

[theredbaron]

An 80’s Factory 1 pot for 72 GBP?

As an amateur, there are three things I have been lead, or have lead myself, to believe about Yixing pots:

1) Older pots usually have better clay
2) Factory 1 pots are very good and pretty rare
3) Old(ish) pots are very expensive

85 ml – I like this, too.

So what am I missing? Are these pots comparatively cheap because 80’s pots are not as good as, say, 50’s or 60’s pots?

Others are much more knowledgeable than me answering your questions. However, factory 1 pots are not really rare in the sense that not many were made, on the opposite, millions were made, and at the time were very cheap. But - many were bought up by hoarders. Late 80's shui ping are good, but not yet excessively expensive.

[kyarazen]

+1

it could be better for the real experts to chime in on this though but here's my take from my observations, and to make it speedy i'm going to make some broad generalizations, dont assasinate me because of the generalizations (just to save time than having to type for hours)

Red clay had always been assumed to be "superior", more collectible and desired, and lower in quantity than zhisha/qingshuini. very 细腻

qing to ROC - probably wont discuss it here

Pre factory - mostly very sought after, half handmade, excellent clay material. very small amounts of zhuni that went into puff-lid shuipings, and the rest are excellent well aged red clay, nice texture and high content of "shi-huang".

Early Factory - 1958 to 1966 before CR, excellent red clay material, many of the small gongfucha pots are made of great hong ni, has high "shihuang content". some of the hong ni even have a "pearskin" like texture which is really lovely, whilst some are really fine and smooth. some amounts of "qie-zini" or a unique jade like purple zisha that had gone into the makings of the black apple, pigeon beak etc. the zini that was used to make the pigeon beak pots are extremely fine and "soft", well eroded, this trait appears to stretch into the 70s. there is also very nice benshan lv ni and duan ni that were made into dragon egg pots. there is NO HUGE hong ni pot made, and all the large/huge pots are made of zisha/qingshuini, some of duan-ni etc. all the hong ni pots are small gongfu like, up to 9 cup size~ 180ml

Cultural Revolution till' 75- old style hongni of 60s era became really little, substituted with another excellent hong ni that is very fine, fires up to a lovely texture, jade like touch, commonly seen with 7/3 seals, very high iron content. due to preciousness of hong-ni, many wares made during this period of time are made from qingshuini or zini, and then coated with red clay.. there's still nice qiezini, some of the qingshuini from this era is really really well aged and very dense, superb material! how to judge the material? my advice is to focus on the "softest" constituent in the clay.

'78 to 82, green label era. by now the jadelike hongni of the early to mid CR is no longer available, the hongni during this period of time is quite grainy and reminds one of "red zisha". the nei-ziwaihong, (inside purple outside red coating), neiwailinghong (both inside and outside coated with red clay but raw material is zisha) is still being done here but not as crazily rampant as into the 80s perhaps. niangao material also appeared during this era and is also sought after. some of the niangao clay is made into medium sized pots.
based on taiwan/asian markets, niangao material pots quite expensive, red zisha is next, with the cheaper ones being nzwh,nwlh


'82-86 ("fangyuan box period?), this period of time, especially in '82, finally a bit of freedom for the potters, new expression, using new materials, there is an orangey-red like hong ni that is seen in many of the 82 小品and many other small pots. BIG pots remain to be made of zisha, qingshuini, duan-ni etc. more colors appear. the hong ni seen here is sometimes confused with niangao clay, many times due to white balance issues in photography. iron content is not incredibly high.

'87, fang yuan label period, red clay during this period feels a little chalkier, more orange-red and not as metallic/ringey as the early era ones, but still v good for tea

and i agree with redbaron, a lot are bought up by hoarders. in taiwan, some of the seasoned collectors would feed up the "scale", and consider some proportions like 1 50s pot is like 2 60s pots, which is like 4-5 70s pot, or 10+ green label pots, which will probably be 20 fangyuan label pots etc. not that i agree with these numbers but these are some hint of what is going on in the value/scarcity realm

[jayinhk]

Great info, thank you kyarazen! Many of us here consider you one of our resident Yixing experts. I certainly learned a lot. I've handled some beautiful older hongni pots here in HK in the last few weeks, one of which rang like a bell when I put the lid back on. I may have to ask how much that particular pot is as it really caught my eye. The high pitched chime surprised me as the teapot had a very heavy base and I didn't expect it!

My interest in Yixing was awakened after I bought a knockoff pot in Taiwan about a month ago. I've been using four good zini shuipings for four years and wanted something different for gaoshan. I certainly have a lot to learn, but I think I'm in a pretty good place to learn more about Yixing teapots! I wish I read and spoke better Chinese, but this is certainly motivation to learn!

[thirst]

Others are much more knowledgeable than me answering your questions. However, factory 1 pots are not really rare in the sense that not many were made, on the opposite, millions were made, and at the time were very cheap. But - many were bought up by hoarders. Late 80's shui ping are good, but not yet excessively expensive.

Thanks, I’d read about that, i meant rare as in rarely offered by English language shops (admittedly a tiny fraction of tea shops) & then you probably have to wonder if they’re genuine.

[thirst]

…

Lots of information – 多谢Kyarazen老师!

[Zacherywolf7]

Would I be recommended to buy one of the factory 1 pot that was just posted? Is this a once in a lifetime find/price?

Edit: I made the jump. In terms of pairing, these are fairly flexible right? Aged puerh wouldn't be recommended against? Anything that people agree pairs really exceptionally with these?