Xu Hantang
Xu Hantang works with familiar Yixing forms at different scales. Museum objects and his own account show how changes to a curve, a handle or a surface can give a pot a distinct character.
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Eight small pots, eight distinct outlines#
Look at the eight miniature teapots in the Hong Kong catalogue: squared, cylindrical and rounded bodies remain distinct beside a pot with an overhead handle. The group, C82.26 (1–8), is dated about 1980. Its recorded heights span 2.2–4.3 cm and widths 3–4 cm; these are ranges for the set, not dimensions assigned to each pot. Catalogue 93, p. 206; PDF p. 210.
The caption records Hantang and Xu Ji seals, but the separate mark photographs do not tell us which component of which pot carries each impression. The catalogue supports discussing this set as Xu’s work without turning every pictured seal into a located mark.
Follow the Shipiao wall to its feet#
Now follow the broad lower wall and three small feet of the large Shipiao described by Wuxi Museum. Its account names a short, straight spout and a round, flat lid. It also places 徐汉棠制 on the base and lid, and 徐 on the handle. Those positions come from the museum’s description; they are not new readings from seal close-ups. Wuxi Museum: large Shipiao.
In a July 2005 interview, Xu described changing the Shipiao profile through what he called a double parabola. The book pictures a Shipiao credited to him, but does not identify it as the Wuxi pot. His words explain a design choice, not a mathematical rule for every pot bearing his name. Pp. 21, 35–36; PDF pp. 30, 44–45.
A Duozhi documented as a museum donation#
A different outline appears in the Palace Museum publication: the Duozhi has a rounded body, a defined neck and a domed lid. The illustrated page supplies no measurements or accession number. The museum’s 2007 yearbook explicitly records accepting one Duozhi donated by Xu, providing evidence more precise than a general claim that museums collect his work. Photograph: p. 63; extracted PDF p. 1; donation list: p. 66, item 8; extracted PDF p. 1.
The related exhibition opened on 27 April 2007. That date belongs to the exhibition, not necessarily to the pot’s manufacture or accession. Exhibition account: p. 60; extracted PDF p. 1.
Changing a form; weighing the evidence#
Xu’s interview also describes adding an overhead handle to an elongated Linghua form and using grains for surface decoration or mixing them into clay. These are attributed accounts of his practice, not proof that he invented the techniques. The interview is dated; the illustrated pots have no supplied production dates or dimensions. Pp. 35–37; PDF pp. 44–46.
Biographical dates need care: the Hong Kong catalogue gives 1933 as his birth year, while the Palace Museum publication gives 1932. His learning from Gu Jingzhou is supported, but accounts differ about when it began. Keep those uncertainties separate from the documented objects. Catalogue name index; biography, p. 63.
Sources#
- The Art of the Yixing Potter: The K.S. Lo Collection (1990)
- 贺云翱主编《紫砂大师访谈录》文物出版社，2008
- 无锡博物院：在线微课｜“紫玉金砂”——紫砂壶介绍（贰）
- 《紫禁城》148：徐汉棠／掇只壶
- 孙悦整理：当代紫砂大师精品入藏故宫，《紫禁城》148
- 《故宫博物院年鉴 2007》
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.