Please help me validate this yixing

[Alurpal]

Hi all,

I really like this yixing pot and would love to make it the first of my collection however, to justify the price, I want to make sure it is legitimately hand made. Could anyone validate that this is indeed hand made?

Link: http://t-emporium.com/ybg007.htm

Thanks,
Alexander

[togei]

Hello,
Your link doesn't work. Can you post a different one.
Dave

[SilentChaos]

Link: http://t-emporium.com/ybg007.htm

Link: http://t-emporium.com/ybg007.html

[Poohblah]

Link: http://t-emporium.com/ybg007.htm

Link: http://t-emporium.com/ybg007.html

The server hosting this site appears to be having issues, or this may be a bad link. This is all the page says when I request it:

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Looking at T-Emporium's list of Yixing pots, it appears that the one that OP tried to link to has been sold.

[tingjunkie]

Sorry Alexander, absolutely nothing from that shop is fully hand made. In the Yixing world, there is: a) non-Yixing clay liquid poured into molds and passed off as Yixing, b) "half handmade" pots that are real Yixing and hand built using the aid of molds, and c) fully hand made pots. In 2013, I think fully hand made pots start at $200-300? Maybe a bit less?

I wouldn't personally buy or recommend any pots from T-Emporium. Looks like a bunch of severely overpriced junk.

My trusted online Yixing vendors are: Jing, Origin Tea, Hou De, The Chinese Tea Shop, and for entry level modern stuff at fairly honest prices Wisdom China on eBay. (In other words, if you ask about any other vendor besides these, 99% of the time I will tell you it's junk, or overpriced, or overpriced junk.)

[puyuan]

Since someone else already broke the ice... Some of the clay profiles there look *extremely* unnatural. The least you can expect is a hefty addition of oxides to the clay.

[bagua7]

The ones I have experience with are: JTS, Life in Teacup (just bought a couple of pots from them which I expect to be good), Essence of Tea (their current prices are too steep for me; the small low fired shui ping I got is tops, it devours puerh ); and then, from time to time: Tea Masters (a tea blogger), Wisdom China, 5000friend, zen8tea (eBay vendors). I purchased from others as well but they are long gone now.

[TuoChaTea]

...and then, from time to time: Tea Masters (a tea blogger), Wisdom China, 5000friend, zen8tea (eBay vendors).

5000friend is VERY suspicious - they "aged" pot are probably all fake.

[bagua7]

I am not after their claims but the hongni & new zhuni pots they sell. The ones I got brew lovely Taiwanese teas. In my experience the high elevation teas are the hardest to brew. Most of 5000friends pots are thin-walled and use a very decent clay, hence why work so well for me. I wouldn't use the word "fake" but rather "inflated."