Jiang Rong

A pond becomes a teapot#

Look first at the frog-and-lotus teapot in Wuxi Museum. A rolled leaf forms the spout, a curved stem becomes the handle, and a seed pod serves as the lid. The frog on top is also its knob. These details make the natural scene part of the vessel’s structure, rather than simply a picture on its surface.

The museum identifies the pot as Jiang Rong’s work and records her donation in 2000. That is the date it entered the collection, not a manufacture date. The loan-exhibition caption identifies it as H2-34. Wuxi gives overall length 18.2 cm, width 11.4 cm and height 10.50 cm. It also reports movable seeds and a 蒋蓉 seal inside the lid and on the base. Those positions come from the museum’s description; a seal close-up has not been verified here. Object record · Donation record · H2-34 loan caption

The same skill, a different use#

Now compare a hollow-trunk water dropper in Hong Kong, C81.451. Its open trunk, small outlet and modelled creatures also combine a usable vessel with a scene from nature. But the museum identifies this as a scholar’s desk utensil: it is not a teapot.

The 1990 K.S. Lo catalogue illustrates the object and a mark inset as no. 95, printed p. 208 / PDF p. 212. It dates the piece to about 1980 and gives height 7.3 cm and width 9.4 cm. The current museum record locates the separate 蔣 and 蓉 impressions on the base. The catalogue and webpage document the same specimen, not two independent examples. Catalogue 95 · C81.451

Learning by hand, testing with fire#

In a July 2005 interview at her Dingshu home, Jiang recalled her father putting away moulds while teaching her. Read the next part too: she distinguished using a mould to assist a particular component from replacing hand shaping altogether. Her account does not support a blanket rule that moulds and handwork are incompatible. Printed pp. 1, 4, 7 / PDF pp. 10, 13, 16

She also described making test pieces for the colours of a watermelon-shaped pot, firing them, examining the results and adjusting the material before trying again. This is evidence of her working method, not a universal clay recipe or a way to authenticate a pot by colour. Printed pp. 8–9 / PDF pp. 17–18

A life approached through objects#

Jiang Rong (1919–2008) worked in the Yixing tradition and learned pottery within her family. Her interview treats geometric and naturalistic vessels as different artistic approaches, without ranking one above the other. The museum objects make that discussion concrete: first ask what each modelled part does, then consider how closely it observes a plant or animal. Museum biography · Printed pp. 5–6 / PDF pp. 14–15

Related#

• Follow a shape from its outline to its working parts
• Separate a Yixing clay body from its surface treatment