Chang Honghua's pot

Chang Honghua is currently a senior craftsmaster in Yixing. She also works in the Yixing Research Institute. She is a well known potter in this region where Yixing ware is produced and exported.

This pot was probably made in the early years of her career at the Yixing factory, may be around the 70s or 80s. This is because the characters China Yixing were inscribed at the base of the pots. On the inside of the lid 2 small Chinese characters Honghua were inscribed.

The name of this pot is known as lady's shoulder due to the slim body and fine handle and sprout. The zisha is of a dark brown colour which looks slightly reddish. When I bought this pot, I did not know that the potter was Chang herself.  bought it as I knew it was an old pot probably made in the 70s or 80s. One day when I was flipping through a teapot magazine, I found a photograph of this pot and the name Chang Honghua beside the photo. I began to examine the teapot closely and found these 2 characters Honghua inscribed at the underside of the lid. It was indeed a joy to own a pot made by a great potter. At today's market price, I don't think I can afford such a pot.

Today potters seldom put the characters China Yixing at the base of the pots, let alone renown potters and senior craftmasters whose works are highly sought after.

Chusha Hu

Red zisha was depleted in Yixing decades ago. Hence teapots made from red zisha are valuable. The pots are usually called chusha hu meaning red zisha pots (chusha in Chinese means red sand and Hu means pot).

This 3-legged teapot is made by Jiang Soonyin, a female potter active around the 80s in Yixing. The pot stands firmly on 3 legs and the texture has a sandy feel. One thing about the red zisha pot is that when it is filled with hot water to make tea, a dark red colour will develop on the surface of the pot. As tea is consumed, the tone of this dark red colour will change gradually. When the pot cools down it will return to its original colour. It is interesting to note that the colour of zisha can respond to temperature changes. When you make tea using zisha pot, do observe this change of colour on the pot as the temperature changes.

Horses

I like horses not because I was born in the year of the horse.

Horses are great animals. They serve mankind diligently, in peace time and also in times of war. Once the animal is tamed, it will listen to you and take you wherever you want to go. All you need to do is to ensure the animal is well fed and well taken care of. Before cars and trains were invented, people relied on horses for transport. I only had one experience riding a horse. That was a few years ago in China where I paid only 10 RMB for a ride on the horse back in a farm. It was fun and exciting as I was worried I might fall off the horse.

Horses are also a favourite subject for artists all over the world. The Chinese Xu Beihong was famous for painting horses and his paintings of horses are auctioned for huge sum of money.

I have here a shoushan stone carving on horses, a total of eight horse galloping into the sky. I really admire the creator of this piece of art who could effortlessly carve out the horses to show off the power and strength of these animals. Ordinary people would have great difficulty drawing the animal on paper, not to mentioned eight of them in different posture. Here the master was able to use his carving tools to create the horses in lively positions.

Horses are great animals. So please do not ill-treat them. I often heard of stories how in ancient times, soldiers had to kill them for food when they ran out of supplies. It saddened me to know that these animals had to die in this way so fellow human could survive.

Hui Mengchen's pots

The small teapots that are popular among tea drinkers in this part of the world were first designed by a potter known as Hui Mengchen who lived in the Ming dynasty. These pots may look very ordinary but it had a rich history and culture. This globular-shaped teapots are generally called Mengchen pots as characters such as made by Jingxi Hui Mengchen (Jingxi was the old name of Yiixing) were inscribed at the base of the pots. The pots come in three sizes, the smallest one is called the 2-cup size meaning the capacity is just nice for 2 persons. Then there is the 4-cup size and the largest is the 8-cup size. The cups are usually small as people tend to sip concentrated tea in small quantity.

The three sizes of Mengchen pots

There are very few original Mengchen pots made by Hui Mengchen himself. These are kept in museums and private collectors' hands. After Hui's death, his descendants continued making the pots as they were popular among tea drinkers. When the pots were exported to Europe in the 18th century, the Europeans began coping this design and the white-glaze pots were then popularly used to brew English tea.

The Mengchen pots are also called Bahkut teh (spare ribs soup) teapots locally as vendors selling this dish also use this pot to serve the tea that go with the dish (spare ribs soup). Occasionally people will go to the stalls and buy these pots from the vendors as the pots have developed an intense patina after years of usage.

Here I have 2 Mengchen pots of the 80s, an 8-cup size and the other 4-cup size pot. In those days, high quality zisha was used to make the pots even though the shape may look very ordinary.

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

Plum Blossoms 2

Do you know, plum blossoms have other applications.

In mainland China and Taiwan, sour plum juice suanmeitang (酸梅湯; ) is made from smoked plums, called wumei (烏梅).The plum juice is extracted by boiling smoked plums in water and sweetened with sugar to make suanmeitang.

Plum liquor, also known as plum wine, is popular in both Japan and Korea, and is also produced in China. Umeshu (梅酒; sometimes translated as "plum wine") is a Japanese alcoholic drink made by steeping green plums in shōchū (焼酎; clear liquor). It is sweet and smooth.

In Chinese cuisine, plums pickled with vinegar and salt are called suanmeizi (酸梅子; sour plum fruits), and have an intensely sour and salty flavour. They are generally made from unripe plum fruits. Huamei (話梅) are Chinese preserved plums and refers to Chinese plums pickled in sugar, salt, and herbs. There are two general varieties: a dried variety, and a wet (pickled) variety.

The plum blossom, which is known as the meihua (梅花), is one of the most loved flowers in China and has been frequently depicted in Chinese art and poetry for centuries. The plum blossom is seen as a symbol of winter and a harbinger of spring. The blossoms are so beloved because they are viewed as blooming most vibrantly amidst the winter snow, exuding an ethereal elegance, while their fragrance is noticed to still subtly pervade the air at even the coldest times of the year. Source: Wiki.

Here I have 2 teapots modelled on the plum blossoms and they are called plum blossoms pots. The pots are made in the 80s using red zisha.

 

Other than teapots, even  craftsmen from Jindecheng  had in centuries created vases they called Meiping, also plum blossom vase, as early as the Yuan dynasty. These vases have an elegant and slim body with a small mouth, very feminine.

Meiping from the Song dynasty

If you like, there is a song of plum blossoms sung by Fei Yuqin; Just click on the UOL below:

http://youtu.be/MfiuQupcQxU

 

Plum Blossoms

Another fabulous stone carving I have collected. This time is the Plum Blossoms (梅花). The carving again is carved out from a piece of shoushan stone of the Furong variety. Plum Blossoms are Chinese artists favourite subject. The flowers often appear on Chinese ink paintings in four seasons. In this carving, the petals of the flowers are delicately carved out, evenly spread out on a massive tree trunk. Some of the twigs are so fine that they are like thread hanging in the air. There are 2 birds on the left, resting on a branch.

Prunus mume is an Asian tree species classified in the Armeniaca section of the genus Prunus subgenus Prunus. Its common names include Chinese plum and Japanese apricot. The flower is usually called plum blossom. This distinct tree species is related to both the plum and apricot trees.
The plant is known by a number of different names in English, including Chinese plum and Japanese apricot. An alternative name is ume, from Japanese, or mume, from the scientific name. Another alternative name is mei, from the Chinese name.

The flower is known as the meihua (梅花) in Chinese, which came to be translated as "plum blossom" or sometimes as "flowering plum". The term "winter plum" may be used too, specifically with regard to the depiction of the flower with its early blooming in Chinese painting.

In Chinese it is called méi (梅) and the fruit is called méizi (梅子). The Japanese name is ume (kanji: 梅; hiragana: うめ), while the Korean name is maesil (hangul: 매실; hanja: 梅實). The Japanese and Korean terms derive from Middle Chinese, in which the pronunciation is thought to have been muəi. The Vietnamese name is mai or mơ. Source: Wiki.



Plum Bloosoms in nature



Close up view of the flower

Chines painting of Plum Blossoms

Pork belly

Fancy eating this huge piece of pork belly? Roast it or boil it?

This piece of pork belly may look juicy and succulent, but it cannot be roasted nor boiled. It is just not for your stomach. Why?

This is because it is a piece of rock, a product of nature. It does look like a real piece of pork belly. If you put it on a plate in the kitchen, I am sure you wife will ask you, "Honey, you want the pork roasted or boiled for dinner tonight?"



Let's have pork tonight

Well, nature is interesting. It gives us a lot of things to enjoy apart from the necessary things (food) to sustain our lives. Nature is kind and loving. We have the beautiful landscapes, seascapes and beautiful resorts, this is to ensure that we don't have a boring life on earth, like eating, working and sleeping away our lives. Do stop for a while from your busy schedule and enjoy the little thing that nature has installed for us to enjoy and appreciate. You will sure live an abundant life on earth.

A large seal stone

Here is a video on a large seal stone I have collected recently. It is carved from Kaoshan stone, a variety of Shoushan stones. In the past, seal stones of these size were normally carved into the seals of states or important official posts, like Emperor's seals or general's seals. Emperor Qianlong used to own thousands of such large seal stones carved from a variety of materials from Chicken blood stones to white jade.

Qintian stone carving

Another stone carving from the Qintian district of China.

This carving shows same flowers and leaves sprouting out from a cliff. Some flower buds can also be seen, ready to blossom into full flowers. The whole piece weighs over 10 kg.

This stone carving is unique in the sense that the top part of the stone has some blue colour. This blue stone is known as Lantin, literally means blue nail. The best variety of the blue stone in Qintian is known as Lanxin, literally means blue star. Lanxin stone is crystal-like and the blue hue is that of copper sulphate. Carvings from this stone are very valuable due to the scarcity of Lanxin stone.

A Lanxin stone carving

Chen Mansheng's pot designs

Chen Mansheng was a magistrate who lived during the later part of the Qing dynasty. Chen was a vivid enthusiast of the Yixing pots, could be due to his love of Chinese tea. People who like a cup of Chinese tea knows that the best way to brew the tea is to brew it using a Yixing pot.

Chen was a teapot fanatic. He used to frequent Yixing to meet up with the potters and also to search for good pots. Later he came up with 18 designs of Yixing pots which later became the Mansheng's 18 styles. He then commissioned famous potters such as Yang Pengnien and his sister to make these pots for him. The Mansheng's pots (the pots designed by Mansheng) are widely copied by potters these days. The legendary Gu Zingzhou made 5 of Mansheng's pot in the 50s for his close friends (famous artists) and they also engraved on the pots. One of the pot was auctioned in 2011 for over 10 millions RMB. These pots are highly sough after due to the potter's fame and the engraving which was done by great artists of the time.

 

Here is the famous Mansheng's pot that most potters like to copy and make. The one that Gu made in the 60s.

Chinese Teahouse Pots 2

A set of three pots commissioned by Chinese Teahouse in the 90s.

These pots are elegantly designed using three different types of zisha. At the bottom of the pots there are seals of Chines Teahouse stamped on the clay. At the underside of the handles, the words Singapore in Mandarin were engraved.

Chinese Teahouse not only engaged potters from China to make teapots, potters from Taiwan were also participated in making teapots for the clients of the teahouse.

Prof Pan versus Prof Pan

Here is a video on two sets of the pumpkin teapots created and made by Prof Pan Chunfang. The pots and cups are put side by side. It is indeed a pleasure to admire the works of a great master.

I have written on many occasions on Prof Pan and his teapots. He was a senior craftsmaster in Yixing and was active in the 70s and 80s. Because of his talent, he was seconded to  the Nanjing Academy of Fine Arts where he became a professor of fine arts. His work revolves around pottery designs and creative works of art. He trained a lot of potters from Yixing. He was well rested by his fellow potters and many look to him as a source of inspirations. Occasionally, he also makes teapots. He came to Singapore a few times to exhibit his works.

God of longevity

This is a shoushan carving of the God of Longevity (Shou), one of three gods known as Fu, Lu, and Shou (福禄寿).

Fu, Lu, and Shou  福禄寿;  is the concept of Happiness (Fu), Prosperity (Lu), and Longevity (Shou). This concept of the Chinese traditional religion is thought to date back to the Ming Dynasty,when the Fu Star, Lu Star and Shou Star were considered to be personified deities of these attributes respectively.

The term is commonly used in Chinese culture to denote the three attributes of a good life. Statues of these three gods are found on the facades of folk religion's temples and ancestral shrines, in nearly every Chinese home and many Chinese-owned shops on small altars with a glass of water, an orange or other auspicious offerings, especially during Chinese New Year. Traditionally, they are arranged right to left (Source: Wiki).

This shoushan carving is created from the Furong stone that exhibits white, yellow and orange colours. The craftsman intelligently made use of the different colours in the stone and carved out the different parts of the body. As a result, the carving looks lively.

Shoushan carvings need a layer of oil on them to nurture and protect the stones. This is especially true in cold and dry climate where the stones may crack easily if conditions are too dry.

The dragon head pot

I have written on this type of pots a few times . Here is a video on an old dragon head pot made in the republic era. The real name of the pot is fish turning into dragon (something like the present day transformer).

Dragon head teapot was originally designed and made by a potter called Shao Dahen who lived during the 19th century. One side of the pot shows a fish while the other side shows a dragon in the midst of roaring waves. The legend has it that the fish jumps over a heavenly gate and transform into a dragon. A sign of good fortune. Hence a lot of potters like to make this pot which is a sign of good things to come.

This is the original design but modified by Huang Yulin, another master who was active in the late Qing dynasty. The pot is bigger than the original one and there is a Yuanbao (gold nugget) at the top of the pot which signifies prosperity.

The interesting thing about this pot is that the dragon head is not attached to the body. It is free to move. The tongue of the dragon will stick out when you are pouring tea. This is one teapot most collectors would like to possess. It is a classic design in the world of pots.

A small compressed-shape teapot

Here is one small compressed-shaped teapot.

In the 90s, Yixing factory produced a set of ten small teapots. These teapots all have different designs, shapes and colours. Theses pots are called the elegant series of ten pots. They are exquisitely made and straight away become collectors' favourite pots.

This compressed-shape teapot is one pot from that series. The pot is well made and the clay is of a fine quality zisha. The only problem is its compressed shape which means it cannot hold a lot of tea. Anyway, it is still a nice pot to brew tea and enjoy its beauty.

 

With the steady depletion of zisha clay, it is not easy to find teapots made from old good quality clay. Do you know, there are more than 20000 potters in Yixing. They all depend on the zisha clay for a living. If every potter is busy making pots, the zisha reserves will definitely be depleted one day. There are some smart potters who not only make pots, but openly storing the precious clay in huge quantities. Some even reported to have tonnes of zisha in their possession.

Apart from potters, other businessmen also start to buy and keep the precious zisha clay and hope to reap profits in the future. As storage space is cheap in country villages, it won't cost much to horde the clay for years. This happens to all other scarce resources like the seal stones, high quality wood and puerh tea.

Just a teapot

This is just a ball-filter teapot of the 80s. There is a Yixing China mark at the bottom of the teapot

A thing I like about the teapot is the cover. Look at the cover, it is so flat and in perfect contact with the rim of the pot. It is not easy to produce a teapot with such precision. The firing process must have been a perfect one as there is no distortion nor defects seen on the pot.

When buying teapots, one must always check that the cover, the body and the handle are in one straight line. Of course, one should also check if there is distortion or minute cracks on the pot as a result of the firing processes.

When a craftsmaster creates a new design, he always makes several pots of the same design, 3 to 5 pots. The reason is simple. He does not know the outcome after the teapots are sent to the kiln for firing. His skills may be good, but he has no control once the pots are in the furnace to receive the intense heat of the firing process. To play safe, he has to make a several pots in case a couple may turn out bad after firing.

A white Furong carving

Furong stone, a type of seal stone from shoushan, is famous for its spectrum of colours from white, yellow to red. The material is well suited for carving into seals. As Chinese people like seals art, they also like this stone. In everyday life, seals have become an integral part of a person's identity. He needs to stamp his personal seal onto an agreement to make it a legal document. Artists have to put their best seals onto their paintings to protect their right. Teapot makers also put their seals at the bottom of the pots to claim ownership of their works.

There are many different types of seal stones. Top of the range will be Tianhuang stone follows by Chicken blood stone, then comes the Furong stone. In the terminology of the Qing emperor, Tianhuang is the king, Chicken blood is the queen and Furong is the concubine of all seal stones. You can see the importance of this stone in early days.

Furong stones have become expensive these days as the resources of this material have greatly depleted due to hundreds of years of continuous mining.

I have here a stone carving of the goddess of mercy created from a white Furong stone. The carving is well executed as the goddess sits elegantly in a very composed manner. The hands and legs are superbly crafted, elegant and gracious. The right hand is holding a Ruyi while the left palm is raised showing the delicate fingers. The legs are well placed in a balanced posture that shows the goddess's at ease with the surroundings. This requires extreme patience so as not to damage the little features such as the fingers. This must be the work of a master who is well trained in the art of carving. Looking at the goddess gives people a sense of respect and admiration. Salute to the person who created this piece of art that enables me to have endless fun and satisfaction.

Three Luohans (羅漢) carving

Here is a stone carving of three luohans hugging together. The carving is well executed with minute facial details of the Luohans shown. This shows the skills and talent of the master who produced this piece of art. As Luohans usually come in group of 18, I believe there are other carvings of luohans in groups of three that will finally made up the total of 18 Luohans.

A luohan 羅漢 is the Chinese term for an arhat, one of the historical disciples of the Buddha. As Buddhist tradition developed, and especially in the East Asian Buddhist countries, the number of arhats or luohans tended to increase, and at least the most important were regarded as, or as almost, bodhisattvas or fully enlightened beings, with a wide range of supernatural powers. According to Buddhist tradition, groups of 16, 18 or 500 luohans awaited the arrival of Maitreya, the Future Buddha, and groups were often used in East Asian Buddhist art. The full set is thought by most scholars to have had figures for the typical Chinese main grouping of Sixteen or Eighteen Arhats. although. These and earlier smaller groupings of six or eight were each given names and personalities in Buddhist tradition.

A set of life-size glazed pottery sculptures of luohans usually assigned to the period of the Liao dynasty (907–1125) was discovered in caves at I Chou (I-chou, Yizhou) in Yi xian or Yi County, Hebei south of Beijing, before World War I. They have been described as "one of the most important groups of ceramic sculpture in the world." They reached the international art market, and were bought for Western collections. At least eight statues were originally found, including one large fragment which was long thought to have been destroyed in Berlin during World War II, but has been sighted in Russia recently.

Others are now in the following collections: the British Museum in London, two in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, the Musée Guimet in Paris, and a Japanese collection. With the example lost in Berlin, this makes a total of ten figures (Source: Wiki).

A life-size luohan sculpture

Another luohan sculpture

A green stone

Qintian is a town in China famous for its seal stones. There are hundreds of different variety of seal stones. Some of these stones are cut into rectangular pieces for seal making while others are carved into elegant stone carvings.

This particular green stone weighs more than 10 kg. The stone has minimum carving on it to retain its original condition. Only the rocky parts of the stone are carved into pagodas, huts and trees. This makes the whole carving looks as if it is a mountain with buildings built on it in  surroundings of trees and bushes, an ideal piece of chinese art. Sometimes I look at it as if I am looking at a traditional Chinese ink painting of mountain and scattered houses and trees. The only difference is that this is a 3D presentation of oriental art.

The base where the green stone sits on is also another piece of Qintian stone with more elaborate carvings. Carvings of houses, temples and a huge pine tree can be seen. On top of that there is a big pond, presumably a pond for rearing oriental fish. This is a picture of a scenic garden in Suzhou, very spectacular. There is so much fun in collecting stone carvings as you can appreciate the stone as well as Chinese art in these carvings.

Old teapots

I like old teapots, especially those made during the late Qing and early republic era (post 1911). These old yixing teapots are special as they inherited the culture and artistic creation of the time when they were made.

I have here two teapots, one made by a master by the name of ShaoYouting, the other is a glazed teapot and I had problem reading the potter's name.

This is quite a large teapot made in the late Qing period. The clay is characteristic of that period with fine engraving on it.

Another extra large teapot from the 19th century. This teapot was painted using a media known as enamel. When  the media was first introduced to China from Europe during the 18th century, Qing emperor Qianlong like the enamel so much that he immediately set up a workshop in his palace directly involved in enamel painting on porcelains. Craftsmen from Jingdecheng were instructed to deliver porcelains to the workshops for enamel paintings to be carried out on them. Incidentally, those porcelains with enamel paintings are works of fine art. They are highly sough after items in auction markets. Auction prices exceeding tens of millions are not uncommon.

My first teapot

This is the first teapot I bought in Singapore. I bought it in an emporium at a cost of 7 dollars. That was in 1984.

The teapot has a lion on the cover. I bought it solely for the purpose of brewing Chinese tea in it. At that time, I had no idea that there was so much to learn about Yixing teapots and so many things to discover regarding the history and culture behind these Yixing wares. I As I needed a pot to brew tea, I just picked up one from the Emporium.

Then I met my colleague who was a teapot fanatic. I used to drink good puerh tea in his office and saw his collection of fine antique Yixing teapots. I began to learn more about Yixing teapots, the history, culture and the value behind these unglazed pieces of pottery. He had collected hundreds of teapots, mainly made in the republic time and some were from the Qing dynasty. As a beginner, I had the opportunity to see and touch some very fine teapots apart from sipping fine puerh tea of the 50s and even earlier. I also bought a couple of antique pots from him and some puerh cakes.

Other than this lion pot, I had another lion pot which had a ball filter inside. As these are big pots, I usually made a big pot of puerh tea and the tea could quench my thirst for the whole afternoon. In early days, big teapots were definitely suited for brewing puerh tea since this tea was consumed in large quantity. As fine and aged puerh tea is getting very expensive, big pots are not recommended as too much tea leaves is required to fill up these pots. As a norm, people normally fill the pot 1/3 to 1/2 full, large teapots will become a burden as they burn up your stock of fine tea quickly (just like a 2.5 litre car that burn up your costly petrol). With some small teapots, other people will measure 8 to 10 grams of tea to be brewed in the pots.

Twinkling little stars on pots

A pair of globular pots from the 90s.

These globular pots were popular during the 90s. They were also not expensive either. The pots were decorated with poker dots (yellow sand particles) embedded in the purplish clay. These dots look as if they were twinkling little stars in a grey sky.

 

Today, potters like to blend zisha of different colours to make their teapots. This gives the teapots a new look and a unique texture.

 

Blending zisha to make a pot

 

Chinese culture in pots

 

It is said among tea lovers that you can also appreciate a variety of Chinese culture on the pot you use to make tea. This is because these teapots are decorated with Chinese paintings, calligraphy, poems, literature and seals-art.

I have two round pots of the early 90s. These round pots also come with literature and calligraphy on the side, good for those who are poetic and love Chinese art and literature.

If you own a teapot with these characteristic, you can enjoy your cup of tea and at the same time admire Chinese paintings, read poems, study calligraphy and learn the various types of seals as all these cultural things are wrapped up on a small Yixing teapot.

A basket of Yangmei 2

Another stone carving of Yangmei (waxberries) on a basket I collected not too long ago.

Yangmei on branches

 

The colour of the fruits ranges from pinkish red to greenish yellow, even the leaves and branches and also the basket are of similar colour, in fact all are from the same piece of stone. The artistic appearance of this stone carving clearly shows the skills and mastery of the artist in area of stone carving. As he crafted the whole thing from a single stone, you can imagine how delicate and tough is the job. He painstakingly put in the little spikes on each fruit and also blended the bunch of fruits with leaves and basket. He must have spent a long time examining the stone before starting work. I really admired his patience and skills.

It is really a pleasant sight to admire the natural beauty of the shoushan stone and the remarkable workmanship of the unknown master who created it.

A bouquet of flowers and fruits

Stone carvings are big things nowadays. Due to the shortage of resources, the price of seal stones has escalated steeply. What used to be selling around 10 dollars per kg is now selling hundreds of thousands per kg. If you talk about the top grades such as Tianhuang, it can be as high as fifteen thousand per gramme. No wonder stone carvings of precious stones such as the chicken blood and Lychee stones are fetching millions of dollars in auctions.

I have here a stone carving of a bouquet of flowers and fruits. It is carved from a type of seal stone called the Kaoshan sih (literally means stone from the high mountain). The carving weighs a staggering 20 kg and I had great trouble transporting it home from the shop. The carving is done all round as you will be able to see something if you go to the back of the carving. The master must have spent a long time crafting out this bouquet of flowers and fruits from a big raw stone. He needed to carve and blend the items according to the colours exhibited in the stone. This requires skills, talent and some artistic training. For sure I will not be able to draw the whole thing on paper, let alone crafting it out of a stone.

 

A good stone usually need an equally good craftsmaster who can turn the stone into a beautiful art piece. Unlike paintings, the craftsmaster is limited by the material at his disposal in terms of size, texture and colours in the stone. Before he starts work, he would normally spend a few weeks or even months to study the stones. What he wants is to understand the stone well so that he knows what is best to carve the stone into. Once the idea comes, he will start work and the whole process can take him months or even years to complete. The carving process is slow and delicate as he has to follow the colours in the stone and carve out his masterpiece. He doesn't want to damage any part as this will destroy his work and a good stone can become worthless.

Today it is difficult to engage great masters to carve your stones as they normally charge very high fees, to the tune of millions. If you can buy anything of the shelves and it doesn't cost much, you better do so as these things are going to get more and more expensive in the future.

Old fashion pots

I love old teapots, especially old teapots of the 70s and 80s. These teapots are uniquely traditional. At one glance, you can recognize them due to their old fashion shapes and the quality zisha used to make them. These pots usually do not have potters'  names engraved on them. However, they have the seals with characters China Yixing stamped at the bottom of the pots. Occasionally, you may also find potters' names engraved/stamped under the cover or at the underside of the handle. Today, no potters would use the China Yixing seals on their pots. What you see are the names of potters in big characters stamped across the bottom of the pots they designed and made. Everyone in Yixing knows that name sells, especially if the name is Gu Jingzhou. Gu's teapots have been auctioned for millions of dollars.

China Yixing seal

Gu Jingzhou's seals

Some teapots that had the China Yixing marks at the bottom of the pots. These teapots may also have the characteristic ball filter inside, a symbol of things of the past.

Zisha pots

These two teapots that I collected happened to have a common design but made by two different potters with two different types of zisha.. You can spot that the one on the left is slightly fatter in the middle while the one on the right is slightly fitter. Both teapots show a rough texture which appears to have traces of sand particles uniformly spread on the outside.

Yixing zisha teapots should have traces of sand particles on the surface, if you touch it you will feel the sand particles. This is because the raw material is basically rock taken from the mountain. These rocks are then ground into smaller particles before the zisha is beaten into strips of clay-like matter. This is left for a couple of months for the zisha to achieve its plasticity (mouldability). With this plasticity, the potters are then able to mould the teapots into various shape. As a result, real zisha  (in mandarin means purple sand) will have both the look and feel of sand particles on the outside. Another tip to check if you teapot is really made from zisha is that when hot water is poured over it, the water spreads evenly on the surface and quickly evaporates into thin air (due to minute pores of the zisha). Another thing you would want to find out is that if the pot you own is really hand made and not moulded by machines or slip-casted. Very simple, open the cover and look inside the teapot. If it is hand made, you should be able to see some scratch marks (a bit like marks left over by brushes) at the bottom and internal wall of the pot. These scratch marks are evidence of potters scrapping out the clay to smoothen out the wall of the pot. Machined made or slip-casted pots will have no such traces.

Brush marks at the bottom

Teapot shaped in a mould

Water spreads nicely over zisha pot

Top handle delight

Here are three teapots with top handle made in the 60s. There is a little story behind these pots.

When I started work in the early 80s, I had the first encounter with this teapot. It was during a small group meeting that I noticed a colleague walking into the meeting with his hand holding a teapot. It appeared strange at that time as someone would actually take the trouble to bring along his own tea to attend meeting (tea was usually ordered to be consumed during meeting). When I took a closer look, it was a top handle teapot that had a design like a portion of a bamboo. I was new to teapot at that time but I liked it straight away. My colleague had this habit of bringing his own pot of Chinese tea whenever he went for a meeting. He didn't like tea or coffee which was the norm at any meeting place. After the meeting, I began to take an interest in teapot. I could also imagine myself holding the teapot and walking into a meeting. It was like kind of cool.

Ever since my first encounter with this pot, I had been hunting high and low for a similar pot in many antique shops in Singapore for a couple of months. Eventually I found one shop where there were 3 such pots on display. With some persuasion, I managed to buy all three pots from the shops. Subsequently I was able to collect another 7 pots from other shops as well. I sold one to a collector in the 90s and I am now left with 9. Nowadays, I seldom use them to serve tea as I am worried that they may be damaged due to my carelessness.

These teapots were made with fine zisha and the feel on the pots was good. Being a top handle pot, you can carry it anywhere you like with one hand, just like my colleague in older days.

A red Xishi pot

Xishi pots, as I mentioned earlier, are fantastic to brew kungfu tea due to their small size and elegant shape. Here is one Xishi pot made in the 60s. This particular pot is made from red zisha and is ideal for a company of 4 to 8 persons (when small cups are used to serve tea). I particularly like the handle of the pot as it bends into a nice curve attaching itself to the body of the pot. The pot is easy to handle as the curved handle extends a bit to the back giving you more space to hold it. This type of curvature shows the skills and talent of the potter who crafted it. It also blends well to the shape of Xishi pots. The body itself is such an excellent conical shape, not a bit too thin nor a bit too fat. That is the reason why Xishi pots are generally most tea drinkers' favourite pots. No wonder they said the Xishi pot is modelled on the breasts of the ancient beauty, Xi Shi.

There are a few varieties of Xishi pots, some with long sprouts, others with short sprouts. Some Xishi pots are taller while others are shorters. Most of the Xishi pots are mass produced in factory during the early years. There are very few Xishi pots made by craftsmasters which are collectors' items. Whether your pots are oridinary pots or pots made by masters, they are all excellent for brewing green tea. Make sure you keep a few Xishi pots for brewing different types of tea.



A tall Xishipot

Black beauties

I love teapots made from black zisha (black purplish sand). These pots will develop a pitch black and shinny appearance on the surface after few rounds of tea brewing. Most of the black teapots of the 80s and 90s are made from high quality zisha. These pots are suited for kungfu tea due to their small capacity (around 80 - 100 ml). For one round of tea drinking with 4 buddies, you need to refill the pot with hot water for at least 10 times. As a result, theses pots will be heavily used and a patina will develop on the outside. You need to continuously rub the surface of the pot with a clean cloth after each round of tea brewing. After several weeks, you will see results.

 

 

 

 

Top handle delight

This is a teapot with a big overhead handle. This big handle gives plenty of space for loading/unloading tea leaves without fear of damaging the handle and the body. Thanks to the designer who knows the difficulty of using top handle teapot. This teapot design was subsequently adopted by the factory for production.

In those days where Yixing factory relied on teapots for local as well as export market for revenue. Craftsmasters were engaged to come up with marketable designs where the factory could adopt for production. Once a certain design was selected based on its functionality and other attractive features, the pot was mass produced for revenue.

 

The teapot was made by a woman potter by the name of Si Yuqin, a student of an old master, Wu Yungen of yester year fame.

吴云根收徒：

1955 年：高永津、史济华、许旋、朱凤英。

 1956 年：史玉琴、何听初、许慈媛、范洪泉、王月仙、谢乐仙、吴欣南。

 1958 年:1959 年：吕尧臣、许慈媛。

A pear-shaped pot with overhead handle

The first ever teapot with an overhead handle was reputed to be designed by a poet, Su Tongpo of the Song dynasty. This is the famous Tongpo overhead handle pot. Teapots with over-head handles become a standard design feature. Many different types of such teapots have been made by potters of all ages and fame, some design won prizes and top awards while others fetched millions in auction houses.

 

This is a pear-shaped pot with an overhead handle. There are yellow poker dots on the pot. Although not very convenient to use when putting/taking out tea leaves is concerned, the pot is good to hold when tea is being poured out. The potter is Soonyin, a potter of the 80s.

Another polished teapot with an overhead handle made of silver.

Dragon sprout pots

A popular pots produced in the 80s are the ones with dragon heads as sprouts. These teapots come in two sizes and a variety of colours. Some produced as early as the 70s have a filter ball inside the pot just before the start of the sprout. This filter ball looks like a golf ball with tiny holes all over the surface. The function of the filter ball is to prevent tea leaves leaving the teapot, thus spoiling your clean cup of clear tea. This particular teapot design is unique as the pots were meant for export market in the 70s, mostly to Japan and some ended up in South East Asia.

In the early days of my collection, my friends and I would go to any shops that had teapots on display on shelves. We would open the lid of the pots and check for the little ball inside the pot. If we found one, we would shout with delight, as if we had find treasures. Finding a teapot with a ball filter inside was indeed a tough job as there weren't many such teapots around even during those days. If you were lucky, you might be able to buy one such teapot made by a craftsmaster. That was really what I called 'treasure hunting' and the hunt was filled with fun and thrill.

Li Pifang

Li Pifang, a senior craftsmaster of Yixing, was famous for her skills and talent in Yixing in the 80s. She and Prof Pan CF were regarded as famous potters with very high compliment such as 'in male potters there is Chunfang, in female potters there is Pifang' meaning literally these two were the highly skilled and talented potters among their peers. Pan Chunfang was later transferred to the Nanjing Academy of Fine Arts while Pifang remained in the Yixing factory. She later passed away at the peak of her career. Some rumour had it that she committed suicide (yet to confirm) and there seemed to be not much reporting on her death.

She came to Singapore in the 90s for an exhibition cum sale of her works. As the organiser was my close friend, I had the opportunity to meet her and buy her teapots.

This is a particular teapot design that modelled on the shape of a well. This particular teapot was acquired by Chong Nanhai (the central office of the Chinese Communist Party) of the Chinese government for permanent display. This teapot was also featured in a book written by a renown Taiwanese writer in the 80s.

Li Pifang's works are well received by collectors. It is indeed a privilege and honour to have owned such a well-made teapot.

White jade (Hetian Yu) boulder

White jade has been very special to Chinese people, past and present.

White jade had been crafted into various forms used in ceremonies in the past thousand years. The leaders of various tribes that lived thousand of years ago used to wear jade pieces as a symbol of sovereignty and power. They even fought among themselves to occupy territories where jade was found.

Through out the dynasties that rule China, the art of jade carving flourished and peak during the Qian Long era of the Qing dynasty. Jade carvings of that period were of very fine quality and the workmanship of the jade craftsmen were unmatched even if you consider today's technology in terms of tools and equipment. Undoubtedly fine jade pieces of the Qian Long era fetched millions in auction markets.

With the over-mining of white jade, the resources are diminishing and raw jade boulders are scarce. Where exactly is the white jade come from?

There are two types of raw jade, one from the mountain (Kun Lun Shn) and the other from the river beds of Xiangjiang in western China. Usually the raw jade from the river beds are more valuable than their mountain counterparts.

How did the jade boulders ended up in the river beds?

Actually, all the white jade comes from the Kun Lun mountain range. As the jade boulders fell off the mountain, they ended up in the river. As they were carried by the river water over long distances, they broke up into smaller pieces in the process. Only the stronger and denser jade boulders survived the journey along  the river. Eventually the outer jade boulders became polished and developed skins of distinct colours (some brownish, some greenish or even dark brown in colour). In those days, if you walked on the river bed bare-footed, you could step on these smooth jade boulders and made a valuable find. When the mining reached its peak in the early 2000s, several thousand earth moving equipment were seen on the river beds busily excavating for the jade.

When jade boulders with their unique  skin colour are sent to a jade carving masters, the masters usually retain the skin colour on the carvings as a birth mark, meaning the jade boulder comes from the river beds. These carvings of white jade (especially those with the mutton-fat colour) are indeed very valuable. On the outside they look very greasy, like the white fat of mutton.

 

Here is one white jade boulder weighing 2 kg from the river beds. The surface is  smooth and full of small minute holes, evidence of long time exposure under the river. With interaction from the environment and chemicals in the water, a greenish tone appeared on the skin with patches of brown stains.

Gong Chun pots

Gong Chun was generally recognised as the founding father of Yixing pots. He was a servant of a scholar who found refuge in a temple to prepare for the civil exams at the Imperial court during the reign of the Ming dynasty some 600 years ago. It was in the temple that Gong Chun learnt the art of teapot making from a monk who used the Yixing clay to make pots.

After Gong Chun had mastered the art of teapot making, he became very famous and his pots were well sought after by scholars of the time. It was indeed an honour to own a pot made by Gong Chun. Before the Ming dynasty, tea was boiled in a big vessel and tea was usually made in bid compressed cake. The first Ming emperor then issued a decree that tea was to be made in smaller vessels. This started the fashion of brewing tea in smaller pots where smaller quantity of tea would be consumed.

Ever since the introduction of this decree and the spread of Gong Chun pots, the use of Yixing clay became an indispensable material to make teapots. There were several famous potters after Gong Chun (like Shi Dabin, Xu YouChuen, etc) and their pots were comparable to gold in terms of their values. Common folks were not able to own these Yixing pots. Most poor country folks were not even able to see one, let alone owning it.

Here are two modified form of the Gong Chun pots made from the yellow Zisha clay.