Kao Haigen 高海庚

Kao Haigen高海庚 , a famous potter of the 50s and 60s, was a well loved and respected figure in the Yixing factory. He learned the Yixing art of pottery from the legendary Gu Jingzhou in the 50s. Later he travelled widely with Gu to spread and promote the Yixing culture to this part of the world.

Due to his talent, he was promoted to the rank of manager and took charge of the business at the Yixing factory. Beside designing and making teapots, he also looked after the welfare of the potters and ensured that they lived a decent life. He continued to promote Yixing teapots to the rest of the world. He was known to be a hardworking, caring and considerate colleague to his fellow workers even though he was their boss at the time. Unfortunately bad fortune struck him and he fell ill. Even when he was not well, he continued to care for others and went about his daily chore at the factory. When he finally collapsed, he was not able to receive treatment immediately. Eventually he died at a young age, at the peak of his career.

Kao Haigen's wife is the famous senior craftsmaster, Zhou Guizhen whose teapots also command very high prices in the teapot market.

Here I have a teapot made by Kao Haigen. This is the teapot design that Gu Jingzhou himself favoured in his early years at Yixing. His students liked to copy from him as they learned the art of teapot making from the master.

 

This teapot has very unique shape, people used to call such pot FangGu Hu (literally means imitating old pot). The lid is exceedingly big and the pot has a big and round body