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Danica Danica is offline
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Default Old Yixing teapots on Ebay--First Report

One more thing I forgot to mention, try the second pot with Taiwanese
high mountain oolongs; it's the right dimension and weight to get good
heat to extract flavor, plus it looks like it has a fast pour. If you
take a look at Stephane's teapot for sale for high mountain oolongs, it
has quite a few similarities. And if you don't like it, let me know I
may be interested...

D

ps I really like the 1990 menghai district puer, I think it's a great
value for the money (you have good taste in teas, too...)

Bill Wolfe wrote:
> Danica wrote:
> > Me too--please let me know how you like your teapots!
> >
> > Danica
> >

> Well, my two pots arrived pretty quickly and in great shape. Both are
> clearly the pots shown in the auction photos, and both seem to have
> some real age, but I'm brought up pretty sharply against my utter
> ignorance of Chinese script and Yixing marks and against my profound
> lack of experience in really evaluating Yixing clays. All I can go by
> at this stage is how the pots look, feel, smell, and function.
>
> The first pot
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=250037481133
> holds 150 ml and is made of red clay with an "orange peel" outer
> texture. It has simple rounded lines and a single-hole spout (no
> built-in strainer). The finish and workmanship seem comparable to a
> couple of Yixing Factory No. 1 pots from the 1990s bought for around
> the same price from Hou De. An hour's soak in hot filtered water
> followed by a good dose of peroxide bleach and repeated rinsing with
> hot filtered water removed all the old tea stains and any noticeable
> odor but left a clean "oily" patina. The pot has good vacuum--filled
> 2/3 with water and the spout stopped, the lid stays on when the pot is
> inverted--and pours smoothly without dribbling. Brewings of various
> lightly fermented Oolongs--including 2006 Snow Pear from Silk Road and
> the Premium Spring 2006 Alishan Jinxuan from Shan Shui--yielded
> multiple clean, fragrant infusions. Verdict: certainly a decent
> working pot for the money. At some point I'll try to find someone who
> really knows their pots to weigh in, but I'm quite pleased and look
> forward to many infusions!
>
> Teapot # 2
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=250043812111
> is purportedly older--pre-1908 (!)--and made of "rough zhuni clay."
> Rough is the operable word here. The clay is not only rougher than pot
> #1 but also feels denser and harder. Again, it would be great to know
> what I'm holding and looking at! It has a single-hole spout and good
> vacuum, and it pours well. The finish and workmanship seem generally
> rougher than pot #1 and the two pots from Hou De. That's not
> necessarily a bad thing; the pot does have a fair bit of rustic
> character. This pot was more stained than the first one, and a strong
> dose of peroxide bleach created quite a fizz as the stains were lifted
> and disolved. After rinsing the pot retained a noticeable earthy
> odor--not really disagreeable but persistent in the face of successive
> doses of chlorine bleach, baking soda, and prolonged simmering in clean
> water. After all that, I had no concern about any microbial life, so I
> decided to brew some puerh in it. I started with the 1990 raw Menghai
> district Fang Cha Zhuan from Stephane Erler (Teamasters). Tasted side
> by side with the same tea brewed in a gaiwan, the teapot produced
> several infusions that felt a tasted rounder and better balanced. The
> nose from the teapot brew seemed a little spicier than from the gaiwan.
> The same test with the 1992 Meng Hai Loose Cooked puerh from Jing
> produced similar results. Verdict: I like the rustic character of this
> pot, but the jury's still out as to whether it becomes a daily brewing
> vessel. I am contacting a respected U.S. dealer to see if he'll look
> at it and give an opinion on the age and clay (and smell!).
>
> Overall opinion: I was well enough pleased with my experience with
> Anling that I bought four more of his teapots! His inventory contains
> many pots that seem to have better workmanship individuality, and
> character than those from standard mass-produced commercial sources.
> Of course, he knows teapots and the market far better than most
> prospective customers, so don't expect to walk away with some rare
> treasure for a song!
> BW