What 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.
On this page
Read the lid first#
On catalogue no. 90, read from top to bottom: 六安, Lu’an. The inscription can be read while the lid is in place. Beside it, no. 91 has a similar rounded shoulder, but its lid reads 珠蘭, Zhulan. On the second page of this entry, compare the photograph with the rubbing to pick out the strokes. № 90–91 · 131–133 (PDF 134–136)
Compare two six-sided bodies#
Nos. 92 and 93 both have six-sided bodies with round lids. The first lid reads 雨前, literally “before the rain”; the second reads 蓮心, “lotus heart”. Follow the catalogue’s detail views: the botanical motifs belong to the walls of no. 92, while the two characters are on its lid. № 92–93 · 134–136 (PDF 137–139)
What do the words establish?#
All four inscriptions identify tea by name on the outside of a closed vessel. That makes the caddies evidence for a way of distinguishing stored teas. What someone actually put in any one of them on a particular occasion is a separate question that the lettering alone cannot settle. № 90–93 · 131–136 (PDF 134–139)
Turn the caddy over#
A metal caddy in supplementary figure 8 asks for a different gesture. Look underneath: the catalogue transcribes the base mark as 苏万茂. Record that wording and its position separately. The lid labels name teas; identifying the role of the party behind a base mark takes additional evidence. 附图 8 · 152 (PDF 155)
Sources
- 《你应该知道的200件宜兴紫砂》