Last year, I bought some Yixing teapots from someone in Canada. His mother
kept Chinese herbs in each pot. The teapots are stamped on the bottom and
each one represents nature (a log, a rabbit nest with a rabbithandle, a
lotus, etc.) Each had some black stuff on the outside which I thought was
grime from sitting somewhere on a shelf. I cleaned off the pots as well as I
could and then thought maybe it was put there on purpose to show depth in
some of the reliefs. I cleaned one up and it almost looks worse. Has anyone
come across this?