Chen Ching-liang
Look at the tall rattan handle and round side opening of the tea-roasting vessel attributed to Chen Ching-liang in Taiwan Tea Ware. This Taiwanese maker can be approached through two different objects: one adapted to handling dry leaves, the other catalogued by a museum as a sculptural ceramic teapot.
On this page
A handle before an infusion#
The right-hand photograph on printed p. 214 / PDF p. 218 of 吳德亮’s 台灣茶器 names Chen’s 茶鎦, a tea-roasting vessel, and credits the collection 苔心坊. The body has two rounded volumes, a side opening and a tall rattan handle. The accompanying text explains that the handle helps prevent breakage. Neither a date nor dimensions are supplied for this example. Photograph and text, p. 214
The same page describes a general action before brewing: warm and dry the vessel, add leaves, then move them so they tumble rather than remain against the hot surface. This explains why handling matters. The nearby demonstration photograph is not identified as Chen or as this particular vessel; it must not be used to reconstruct his model’s exact operation.
A separate museum object#
The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts records a different work, 枕木大壺 (Large Sleeper Teapot), under accession 08800326, dated 1993 and assigned to 陳景亮. Its material field reads 硬陶, literally “hard pottery”; this is the museum’s category, not a laboratory identification. The museum’s written interpretation describes a wood-like surface and a work that can also be displayed as sculpture. Its online record supplies no image, so these surface observations belong to the museum’s description, not to a photograph inspected here. Museum record 08800326
What these two records establish#
Together, the sources offer two entrances into Chen’s work: a handle described in relation to use, and a ceramic object discussed through its representation of another material. They do not show the same specimen, and the roasting vessel should not inherit the museum object’s date or material label.
Neither record establishes mark placement, capacity or measured dimensions for these two examples. A biography built from them can explain the documented objects without turning a name, an evocative surface or a collection attribution into a general test of authenticity.
Sources#
- 吳德亮，《台灣茶器》，聯經，2012；2014年第五刷，ISBN 978-957-08-4000-1
- 國立臺灣美術館：陳景亮《枕木大壺》（文化部典藏網）
Status and editorial notes sources cited
Sources are listed below. Their presence does not certify every claim; source-specific interpretations and unresolved questions are identified in the text. This page has not received independent expert approval.