An Unknown potter

Many years ago, Alans Museum acquired a small teapot made by an unknown potter. This particular teapot design is known as the Pan Pot, teapots commissioned by a well known family by the name of Pan SC during the era of the Republic. The teapot is professionally made and is ideal for kungfu tea. However, a check on the name of the potter on the Who's who list of Yixing yielded no results. Probably the teapot is made by an ordinary worker. Anyway, the teapot is quite a pleasant teapot for brewing tea.

Pan Pot by Chen Yajun 陈亚君

A few days ago, a check on the latest list of Yixing potters 2013, it is found that the potter's name appeared in the list. The potter is a lady by the name of Chen Yajun (陈亚君). She has just been promoted with the title craftsman (工艺美术员) in teapot making (制壶). It seems that to receive this title, a potter must have a minimum of 8 years experience in the trade and sat and passed an examination. Once the potter has achieved this status, his/her teapots will command a higher price, up to ten times more than one without this status. Apart from this title, there are titles such as craftsmaster, senior craftsmaster, research senior craftsmaster and finally the grandmaster's status. As a result, all potters in Yixing strive hard to improve their skills, upgrade their knowledge and techniques so as to move up the rank. They know once they are famous, their hard work will be rewarded. News of grandmasters' work receive record breaking auction price is not uncommon. Most of the teapots by the late Gu Zingzhou were auctioned for over 10 million yuans.

 

Do you know, at the national level according to 2013 statistics, there are 2972 potters registered as craftsmen, 747 potters registered as assistant craftsmasters, 467 potters registered as craftsmasters, 112 potters registered as senior craftsmasters, 86 potters registered as research senior craftsmasters and 10 potters registered as national grand masters. At the provincial level, there are 16 registered craftsmen, 26 registered assistant craftsmasters, 21 registered craftsmasters, 1 registered as senior craftsmaster and 12 provincial grand masters. Detail listing as to which potter is in what rank can be found online.

 

A potter in Yixing is often asked this question (by customers or would be vendors), "Is your name in the Yixing potter list?" Most potters whose names are not in the list would answer back, "But..., you must look at the clay I used and the workmanship of the teapots I made." Ultimately, in teapot business, a potter's name and fame do decide the value of a teapot.