Authentic Yixing? I bought this pot in Chengdu

[A88]

Hello everyone! Really love the forum and have been lurking for a while now.

I'm currently in Beijing where I've recently arrived from Chengdu. I visited the local Wukuaishi tea market there where I've bought my first (hopefully) real Yixing pot. I've been in and out of dozens of tea shops throughout China this past month looking for a real Yixing pot. I have no prior experience buying one but I've done just about all the research I could do over the past 5 weeks on what to look for when purchasing.

I've seen some really bogus pots but also pots that look very much like real Yixing, however, because I am new to this and completely out of my element I am not even sure what is truly genuine or not. Because of this, I decided just to go for it and buy a pot from what I deemed to be a legitimate and trustworthy seller. He had pots ranging from 60CNY to 10,000CNY. We went with a Chinese friend who translated between us.

The store owner was very forthcoming with info and here is what he told us about my pot:

It's machine made.
It was cooked at a temperature between 1000-1100C (can't remember precise number).
He poured hot water over the pot and it formed a nice even film.
It pours really nicely and stops perfectly when the airhole is covered.
It feels grainy and not completely smooth.
The inside is unfinished and I can see metallic(?) specs.
The shopkeeper said the pot was low quality and mixed but that it was real Yixing.

My only concern is that the inside has a metal smell to it. Somewhat of a dirt/clay smell but with metal. I've rinsed the pot and the smell has subsided a bit.

I'd like to know if it is real Yixing and if not, is it worth using or even safe? I don't want to use a leadened or painted pot.

Here's a link to the dropbox album I made for the pot ' s pictures:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3kc0cng4r5k5 ... VcXea?dl=0

I've spent a long time scouring this forum for all the information I could get about Yixing and telling authenticity but the truth is you could read an entire novel about it but unless you have hands on experience you still know zip in practical terms.

Any info is kindly appreciated. Thank you everyone!!!

Andrew

[.m.]

It looks fine.

[jayinhk]

Run boiling water through and over it several times and see if the smell persists

[A88]

Thanks for the reoly, guys. I really appreciate it.

Can anyone tell me anything about the clay or the chop marks?

[jayinhk]

I wouldn't have bought it, but hang out here and you might learn a thing or two. As long as it doesn't have an odor after seasoning, it'll make tea. Whether it will make good tea is a whole other question though...

[A88]

I wouldn't have bought it, but hang out here and you might learn a thing or two. As long as it doesn't have an odor after seasoning, it'll make tea. Whether it will make good tea is a whole other question though...

Thanks for the response. I definitely plan to. I've read posts dating back pages and pages and already feel I've learned a lot since even 3 week ago.

What makes you say you wouldn't buy it? Tuition pots and all... all info and opinions I can get is part of the learning experience.

[jayinhk]

I'm far from an expert myself, but the pot looks like it's mimicking old school zini/pin zini and the stamps look kind of messy. Since I use real pin zini pots, anything that looks like it's trying to be zini bothers me immensely. Also the pot isn't crafted very well overall; I see some unevenness in the spout, the body and the handle.

Tea stores and Chinese tea markets do a roaring trade in fake Yixings--even good stores sometimes sell bad pots (sometimes exceptionally bad ones). If you can get on Taobao, we can suggest some pots for you based on your needs (how many people you'll be brewing for, your budget and what kind of tea you want to use it for).

I've learned a lot in the last few weeks myself after buying a cheap pot in Taiwan. The pot brews tea quite well, but it appears to be a Taiwanese Yixing knockoff. At least it was cheap and it doesn't smell!

[steanze]

+1 good info from jayinhk. Looks like a cheap modern zini pot - should work fine with tea. The metallic specs are silica I think. Make sure the weird smell goes away after you pour boiling water through it a few times.
Did you go to the market behind the train station? Fun place to look for tea and teaware

[A88]

Thanks Steanze! It was on the north side of the city though I'm unsure if it was near the train station. It was a lot of fun! Found a really nice girl at a teashop that let us try a slew of teas for free. Chinese people are incredibly nice.

And I guess I could have done worse for my first pot.

[bagua7]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3kc0cng4r5k5 ... VcXea?dl=0

If you just could edit the size of those 7.7 MB files a bit it would be a lot easier to view them since I can't on my end. I tried to logon to dropbox and the files are still unviewable.

If you don't have a image editing tool you can do it online:

Free Image Optimizer

The default settings (1200 x 900) will reduce that monster size you got to an image optimized for online viewing.

Cheers!

[ethan]

So, "authentic" means clay from China traditionally used in Yixing pots?

2nd ?: does anything used looking like that clay produce the results of a modern Yixing pot even though it is not from there?

3rd?: how much should a knockoff that does not stink etc. cost?

[jayinhk]

Yes, authentic would be real clay. Whether any other clay pots produce exactly the same results as old or modern Yixing is debatable. Good usable modern Yixing pots (IMO) start at around $50 in China (more outside China). I'm going to try a Vietnamese clay teapot next month, but I'm not expecting much!

[A88]

If you just could edit the size of those 7.7 MB files a bit it would be a lot easier to view them since I can't on my end.

Yikes, I didn't realize they were that huge, haha.

I've resized them. I'm on a tablet in my hostel so I can only utilize so many things.

Let me know if it's okay.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3kc0cng4r5k5 ... VcXea?dl=0

[BW85]

So, "authentic" means clay from China traditionally used in Yixing pots?

2nd ?: does anything used looking like that clay produce the results of a modern Yixing pot even though it is not from there?

3rd?: how much should a knockoff that does not stink etc. cost?

1. Yes clay mined in the yixing region. there is a lot of clay mined in Anhui and other places that are then trucked into yixing to be made into pots and these would be considered fake. Sometimes these clays are doctored to help them look more authentic

2. All unglazed clay pots will have some affect on the tea, but how they affect the tea will be different. I imagine there is a reason zisha clay became popular in the ming dynasty

[jayinhk]

From reading one of KS Lo's books today, zisha was not the first clay used in Yixing--they used a different clay prior to zisha (and perhaps ran out). Zisha was nothing special to Yixing potters. They made all kinds of stuff out of it, including flower pots and the like! It was just what they found when looking for the previous clay.