Da Hong Pao Zhuni?

[needaTEAcher]

Hello again all you Zisha heads. I posted a bit ago about different clays, and got some good responses and feedback. Now I want to ask if anyone has heard of or know about Da Hong Pao Zhuni?

Here are some photos of the only DHPZhuni pot I have ever seen.

DHPZhu Side No Flash.jpg (28.5 KiB) Viewed 7205 times

Here it is without a flash.

DHPZhu Side Flash Lid.jpg (28.76 KiB) Viewed 7205 times

Here with a flash.

DHPZhu Chop.jpg (15.08 KiB) Viewed 7205 times

And the chop. Any translations from the Chinese experts?

It was selling in Kuala Lumpur a few years ago for about $2k, but now would be worth more since the master died and the clay is more rare (not to mention the standard inflation for master pieces). The sad story here is that you have to warm this clay up slowly, with well under boiling water first. A customer didn't know that and poured boiling water on it and it cracked. Breaks my heart!

This clay looks nothing like any other Zisha I have seen, especially not like Modern Zhuni or the more traditional orange Zhuni. Anone have pictures of other DHPZhuni pots, or any information at all on this type of clay?

I asked about how much new teapots go for made with this clay, and he said there aren't any new teapots being made anymore, at least none that he has seen. He said this clay went extinct long before the regular Zhuni, and is rarely even known of, let alone found or sold.

Thoughts? Chime in y'all!

[Drax]

I think this question has come up before, but to be honest, I don't really remember the context (and it's very hard to search this board for it given that there's a lot of threads about the DHP tea, not the clay).

YS sells a variety of Da Hong Pao pots. I am sure that somebody else will have a good explanation for why these pots are not DHP.... probably a similar 'modern zhu ni' type of story...

[needaTEAcher]

Thanks Drax. I find it hard to believe it is the same clay though, if it is going for $66. I mean, perhaps, but in general I find a lot of YS pots to seem to be too inexpensive to be the clay they claim it is. That said, I have never examined one in person, so this is just me distrusting that something so cheap could be of high quality.

I also know some others on Teachat have expressed some distrust as well of YS's pots, though I have also heard that the guy running it is great on the customer service end of things....

Long story short, is it actually DHPZhuni? I doubt it, but I don't know enough to say so from an online view.

[Drax]

Oh most certainly. My intent was only to show that new pots are still being made that are being called DHP, just like "zhu ni." I've seen other pots labeled similarly for sale elsewhere, too.

I am looking forward to the background story... they are always entertaining.

[tingjunkie]

From my understanding, real DHP clay was mined out a long time ago (shocker, right?). I think about 3 years ago, one of the real experts here said they had never seen a true DHP pot go for less than $600. Extrapolate that to today's market and we are now easily over $1,000.

As for what the clay is... just a type of rare, extra dense zhuni. Higher iron content if I remember correctly.

[bagua7]

YS sells a variety of Da Hong Pao pots. I am sure that somebody else will have a good explanation for why these pots are not DHP.... probably a similar 'modern zhu ni' type of story...

Da Hong Pao ni was from Huang Long mt., very popular during Qing dynasty. Real Da Hong Pao ni however, would sell no less than 500 USD. Most of DHP ni is from Fudong area recently.

Source: http://teadrunk.org/topic/47/basic-yixing-clay-101/

[needaTEAcher]

Thanks for the article, Baggy.

I like it and am gonna stick with it (the whole, "Baggy" thing).

I read this article about a year ago, and it was too complicated for me. didn't get much from it. Reading it again now (I had forgotten about it), I am loving it, and it makes a lot more sense. Yaaaaay for progress!

So this breakdown lists Da Hong Pao Ni as its own category, not as part of Zhuni. I know that different regions define the clay groups (as well as even tea genres) differently. Is that what is going on here? Cause the dude who taught me that it is Da Hong Pao Zhuni is a high level baller, and I trust him greatly. So, if he is not wrong, and assuming this article is also not wrong, what's the "right" that makes sense of it all?

[achyle]

Thanks for the article, Baggy.

I like it and am gonna stick with it (the whole, "Baggy" thing).

I read this article about a year ago, and it was too complicated for me. didn't get much from it. Reading it again now (I had forgotten about it), I am loving it, and it makes a lot more sense. Yaaaaay for progress!

So this breakdown lists Da Hong Pao Ni as its own category, not as part of Zhuni. I know that different regions define the clay groups (as well as even tea genres) differently. Is that what is going on here? Cause the dude who taught me that it is Da Hong Pao Zhuni is a high level baller, and I trust him greatly. So, if he is not wrong, and assuming this article is also not wrong, what's the "right" that makes sense of it all?

the more you go deep in Yixing, the more you get lost

[MarshalN]

Hello again all you Zisha heads. I posted a bit ago about different clays, and got some good responses and feedback. Now I want to ask if anyone has heard of or know about Da Hong Pao Zhuni?

Here are some photos of the only DHPZhuni pot I have ever seen.

DHPZhu Side No Flash.jpg

Here it is without a flash.

DHPZhu Side Flash Lid.jpg

Here with a flash.

DHPZhu Chop.jpg

And the chop. Any translations from the Chinese experts?

It was selling in Kuala Lumpur a few years ago for about $2k, but now would be worth more since the master died and the clay is more rare (not to mention the standard inflation for master pieces). The sad story here is that you have to warm this clay up slowly, with well under boiling water first. A customer didn't know that and poured boiling water on it and it cracked. Breaks my heart!

This clay looks nothing like any other Zisha I have seen, especially not like Modern Zhuni or the more traditional orange Zhuni. Anone have pictures of other DHPZhuni pots, or any information at all on this type of clay?

I asked about how much new teapots go for made with this clay, and he said there aren't any new teapots being made anymore, at least none that he has seen. He said this clay went extinct long before the regular Zhuni, and is rarely even known of, let alone found or sold.

Thoughts? Chime in y'all!

This pot looks like it was stamped with a mold.

[Tead Off]

You should probably state why you think this.

[needaTEAcher]

I agree, and would want to know why you think so. Do you mean the stamp itself was a mold, or the whole pot was made by a mold?

The seller has a VERY good reputation in Kuala Lumpur (he is one of the senior-most masters in the tea culture there), and he said it was made by a Master-level craftsman (who has subsequently died). He wasn't trying to sell it, since it is cracked, so he wouldn't have any reason to lie; so perhaps he is mistaken about the origins of the pot?

[chrl42]

DHP Zhuni is Zhuni+iron oxide or others. It's how sellers or clay manufacturers call pronounced red-colored clay.

Original DHP Zhuni was mentioned in Qing dynasty script written during mid-Qing but even antique Zhuni collectors don't have a correct idea on what the real DHP zhuni is.

[needaTEAcher]

DHP Zhuni is Zhuni+iron oxide or others. It's how sellers or clay manufacturers call pronounced red-colored clay.

Original DHP Zhuni was mentioned in Qing dynasty script written during mid-Qing but even antique Zhuni collectors don't have a correct idea on what the real DHP zhuni is.

Awesome info. Golden. Where did you pick this up from? (fingers crossed, "Please be an English source!")

[Drax]

DHP Zhuni is Zhuni+iron oxide or others. It's how sellers or clay manufacturers call pronounced red-colored clay.

Original DHP Zhuni was mentioned in Qing dynasty script written during mid-Qing but even antique Zhuni collectors don't have a correct idea on what the real DHP zhuni is.

Awesome info. Golden. Where did you pick this up from? (fingers crossed, "Please be an English source!")

I probably don't have to say this one, but just in case there's any confusion, I think he's asking for a source that's written in English... so that he can read it. (And not that the info came from a 'westerner,' which is how I first read it... hehehe...)

[chrl42]

DHP Zhuni is Zhuni+iron oxide or others. It's how sellers or clay manufacturers call pronounced red-colored clay.

Original DHP Zhuni was mentioned in Qing dynasty script written during mid-Qing but even antique Zhuni collectors don't have a correct idea on what the real DHP zhuni is.

Awesome info. Golden. Where did you pick this up from? (fingers crossed, "Please be an English source!")

I probably don't have to say this one, but just in case there's any confusion, I think he's asking for a source that's written in English... so that he can read it. (And not that the info came from a 'westerner,' which is how I first read it... hehehe...)

I doubt there is one. Even Chinese ones are rare, there are Chinese ones on the web, some taken from books, some written from own perspective, some true, some false. It needs efforts and authorities to vefiry which is true or not.

Earlier than 90's, clay studies didn't develop much as now, as time goes by, Yixing clay has been gone day by day, people realized new clays weren't good enough to replace Yixing Huanglong clay and knew the importance of the clay.

It needed guts to write a book about it since there exist many myths and so-called experts out there, but a person like Zhu Ze Wei who studied a lone clay for whole life could,
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a23 ... 6971040536
that book is in Chinese though..that's a sad part. Problem doesn't end even if you get it, how are you certain the pots you have belong to the clays introduced in that one?