ID this Yixing

[Brockodile]

Okay, round two. I posted a few weeks ago about some Yixing I bought in Thailand, with mixed responses. One is fake, one is yixing, and one is undetermined.

If you saw that post, the two candidates I was considering (but did not buy): one sold for $100, the other sold for $10,000 and was made by grandmaster Zhou Guizhen. (which no one identified here, unfortunately).

Regardless of all that, I'm obsessed with Yixing and I've been treasure hunting. I found this at a local antique shop. Please help identify.











Thank you, I appreciate your input.

[kyarazen]

If you saw that post, the two candidates I was considering (but did not buy): one sold for $100, the other sold for $10,000 and was made by grandmaster Zhou Guizhen. (which no one identified here, unfortunately).

i think whoever whom can read chinese can obviously read that it says zhou gui zhen zhi on the pot. but there were so many aspects of the pot that pointed towards..............

nevermind!

happy shopping!!

[Psyck]

It looks more like a suitcase than a teapot.

[steanze]

If you saw that post, the two candidates I was considering (but did not buy): one sold for $100, the other sold for $10,000 and was made by grandmaster Zhou Guizhen. (which no one identified here, unfortunately).

i think whoever whom can read chinese can obviously read that it says zhou gui zhen zhi on the pot. but there were so many aspects of the pot that pointed towards..............als

nevermind!

happy shopping!!

Yes, unless it looks very different in person than it looks in picture, I would not want to be the person who spent $10000 for it. @Brockodile, what information are you looking for? Do you want us to tell you whether it's a pot with decent clay, or do you want us to tell you whether it is an authentic masterpiece made by a grandmaster? This pot looks like it's made from decent zini clay. But whether it's a grandmaster's work or not, it is very difficult to tell: imitations can be remarkably accurate and one needs to be very very familiar with a master's work. If it is a relatively recent piece, another craftsman could have made an imitation using the same kind of clay/firing, and at that point your only chance to know whether it is an imitation or not is to understand the master's work better than the craftsman who made the imitation. I know this is not the advice you asked for, but if I had to invest my own money, I would want to learn what are the elements that point to the piece being a master's work, and have an estimate of the level of confidence I have in my evaluation of its authenticity. I think there is zero chance that you can acquire the experience you need to authenticate grandmaster's pots by posting questions on this forum. You would need to learn Chinese, travel to China, go to museums, meet collectors and see their pots, study books, and then maybe you would have the necessary experience. Even then, I have the impression that in some cases not all experts agree on the authenticity of some pieces. In the end, the liquidity of these items is not great, reselling them to make money can take time. I would see them more as acquisitions for personal enjoyment, at which point what you need to ask yourself is whether you like the pot as well.

[Brockodile]

Sorry, I did not mean to offend. I do not read Chinese and this is why I am asking for an ID . I do not want to invest much money until I have some experience and knowledge. The Zhou Guizhen was at a live auction (not listed as Zhou Guizhen, the buyer told me what it was) along with many other fine Chinese antiques. Some Huang Huali furniture stole the show!

I am looking for any and all information you can extract from the images, such as clay type, shape and style names, maker, etc. I know very little about Yixing so I am looking to learn from the experienced collectors here. What do the Chinese characters say?

Not looking to resell, I am just very interested in the whole culture and ritual surrounding Yixing. And we do like the pot, we are big fans of geometric art.

[steanze]

no worries. I am not good at reading bottom marks. However, usually it works like this: if the mark is the name of the author (rather than, say, zhongguo yixing), either it is some unknown craftsman, and the pot is probably not worth very much, or it is a known master. If the mark is that of a known master, there is a 95% or higher chance that the pot is fake. Therefore, reading the bottom mark is not very useful to determine the value of a pot.
To give you an idea of the level of precision of the fakes, look at this topic: http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=20655
and scroll down to the picture with three seals. The characters are the same, but some of the seals are fake, some are real. Can you tell which ones are fake?