Learn
To choose a pot, begin with the checks you can make before buying. To identify a vessel, compare its shape and marks. The regional guides show how people used these objects together.
25 entries
- 01How a Yixing teapot is builtHow does a flat strip of clay become a round teapot? Watch where the potter puts each hand. A second pot, built with four flat sides, shows just how differently the same clay can take shape.
- 02How to read a side-handled kyūsuIf you were about to pour from this Japanese teapot, which way would you turn your wrist? Look down on the lid and find the spout. The handle of a yokode kyūsu branches off to one side. That arrangement is easiest to see in a pot held ready to pour.
- 03What can a tea-caddy label tell us?Imagine choosing between four closed tea caddies. From the side, two have rounded shoulders and two have flat panels. From above, each gives a different answer in just two characters.
- 04At the tea-tasting benchA sample passes through three places: the lidded cup where it steeps, the white bowl where the liquor is assessed, and the tray where the wet leaves can be opened out. Follow the sample to see why each vessel has a different shape.
- 05What is the visible surface made of?Two grey teapots can catch the light in much the same way. Look first at the rim, the foot and the spaces between the motifs. Where can you actually see the clay?
- 06Dating the parts of a teapotRead the base mark, measure a pot with a missing lid, and separate the date of an imperial poem from the date of its vessel.
- 07How a maker changes a familiar teapot shapePlace a finger just outside the outline of a pot in a photograph and follow the wall from the lid to the foot. A maker can change that one curve and still leave the shape recognizable. A Shipiao designed by Xu Hantang offers a chance to compare what the eye sees with what the potter said.
- 08How to read a Yixing clay nameA clay name may describe an ore, a workshop mixture or the colour of a fired pot. Learn to distinguish these meanings before comparing names such as zini, zhuni and duanni.
- 09Buying a teapot: checks you can do yourselfBegin with the pot you will actually use: its size, grip, lid and pour. Then learn how to separate observable features from claims about its clay, maker or age, and what a test report can establish.
- 10Chaozhou gongfu teawareA Chaozhou gongfu setting heats water, brews tea and serves small cups. Follow those tasks through the vessels, then compare local names, variations and the published regional specification.
- 11Yixing teapots: what history can and cannot tell youThe history of Yixing pots rests on objects and written accounts that do not always agree. Learn what an excavated pot, a later story and a museum attribution can each tell us before following the makers' chronology.
- 12Reading Yixing shape namesStart with a teapot's outline: round or angular, smooth or ribbed, geometric or modeled on nature. Shape names help describe these features, but leave room for different proportions and makers' interpretations.
- 13Names on the base: seals and marks on teawareA mark is something to read before it is something to attribute. Learn to distinguish a name, studio seal and dedication, then compare their placement and documented use without treating an inscription as proof of authorship.
- 14Gaiwan, cups and pitcher: the porcelain side of the tea tableA gaiwan can be a personal drinking bowl or a shared brewing vessel. Begin with those two uses, then see how cups and a pouring pitcher fit around it and how the arrangement changed over time.
- 15Jian bowls and the Song whisked-tea tableA dark bowl makes pale tea foam easy to see. That contrast helps explain Jian bowls' place in Song tea culture; their streaks and spots lead us into kiln practice and modern scientific investigation.
- 16Black and celadon bowls beyond Jian: Jizhou, Longquan, Ru, Yue and DingBlack, white and celadon bowls offer different ways to see tea and ceramic decoration. Start with their visible differences, then explore the kilns, techniques and historical uses behind them.
- 17Four other clay teapot traditions: Chaozhou, Jianshui, Qinzhou and TaiwanNot every unglazed teapot is made like a Yixing pot. Compare how Chaozhou, Jianshui, Qinzhou and Taiwanese workshops prepare, form and finish their vessels before exploring the materials in detail.
- 18Does clay change the taste? What experiments and physics showTwo pots can make the same tea taste different. Begin with water volume, temperature and pouring, then examine what laboratory studies can tell us about the material—and what they have not isolated.
- 19Food-contact tests and standards on teaware, explainedA report is useful only when you know what was tested. Learn to identify the sample, test conditions and results before comparing product-quality standards with food-contact requirements.
- 20Opening and caring for an unglazed teapotCare begins with the condition and intended use of the pot. This guide separates routine care of modern brewing vessels from the treatment of historic, repaired or fragile ceramics, then examines cleaning and patina claims.
- 21Taiwanese gongfu tea and tea-art teawareA Taiwanese tea-art table brings together brewing, sharing and smelling tea. Begin with the pitcher and aroma cup, then explore the movement, workshops and sometimes conflicting accounts of when these practices took shape.
- 22Tea vessels in Japan and Korea: Chadō, Senchadō and DaryeTea vessels travelled between China, Japan and Korea, but each place developed its own practices. Begin with the difference between whisked and steeped tea, then follow objects, texts and local craft traditions.
- 23Hong Kong teahouses, K.S. Lo and the Flagstaff House collectionHong Kong's teaware connects Cantonese teahouses, Chiu Chow gongfu tea and museum collecting. Start with the vessels on those different tables, then explore the workshops, collectors and catalogues that recorded them.
- 24Before the infusion: kettle, brazier and brewing potLook beneath the round kettle in Chen Ching-liang’s illustrated set: a separate stove supports it. The pair makes an easily missed part of tea preparation visible. Before water reaches leaves in a brewing vessel, another vessel heats it. These Taiwanese examples show how that job shapes the handle, lid and openings.
- 25Reading repairs: staples, lacquer and a vessel’s later lifeLook under the lid before deciding how much of a pot’s history you can see. Two photographs of one repaired teapot reveal more than the assembled outline: the underside exposes work that the outside largely conceals. Start there, then learn to distinguish metal bridges, lacquer repairs, glaze crackle and deliberate decoration.