Yang Mei 2

Recently bought another piece of shoushan carving, it is a basket full of Yang Mei. This time there is an insect resting on the fruit, apparently eating the leaves. I really like this carving as the stone is carved all round with the fruits, leaves and branches. You can view it at any angle and still see fruits dangling from the edge of the basket. Of course, one cannot miss a big insect enjoying its meal on the leaves. The carving is skillfully done by an unknown master. It is amazing that this piece of art work can be created from an ordinary piece of shoushan stone.

Yang Mei fruits on branches

Yang Mei fruits, from trees cultivated along the Yangtze river, may be dried, canned, soaked in Chinese liquor, or fermented into alcoholic beverages.Dried fruits are often prepared in the manner of dry huamei (Prunus mume). The juice has been commercialised under the brand name "Yumberry" under which name it is trade-marked in the EU. In Yunnan Province in China, there are two main types of yangmei, a sour type used for making dried fruit and a sweet type used for juice and fresh eating.

Pork belly 2

I have another piece of pork belly, a very huge piece air-flown all the way from Europe. It weighs more than 20 kg. If you roast it to make roasted pork (that kind you see in most Chines restaurants, see photo below), the meat can possibly feed more than 20 people. But again if you have cholesterol, you better refrain from taking any of the roasted meat. Fat is no good for your health. Just look at the top layer, it is fundamentally fat, almost 2 inches thick. But again, the best thing about the pork belly is the fat sandwiched between the meat. Imagine the sensation and the texture when you take a bite into the succulent roasted meat when the oily juice comes dripping down your mouth. I don't like roasted pork without any fat, just lean meat. The taste is flat and the texture is not there, too dry to chew and swallow the meat.

Now, I feel like wanting to have my favourire roasted pork belly for dinner. Got to ask my wife to prepare the pork and get ready the oven. But before that let's check out the internet for a good recipe for roasted pork belly.

 

Roasted pork belly is best served with plain rice over few glasses of red wine. Does that make you mouth water? Go and order some roasted pork belly from the nearest Chinese restaurant.

Square-n-Round labels

Here is a Yixing pots of the 80s. It bears a square and round sticker on the lid, an official mark for teapots made by the first ever state run Yixing factory of China. Prior to the introduction of this label, Yixing pots normally have the green stickers on the pots. The green stickers simply read Made in China.

The introduction of this square-n-round labels on teapots was to promote a brand that customers can recognize, a brand that associate with quality and perfection just like Patek Philippe, Levi's and Louis Vuitton. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for all these branded products. Why is the logo focused on the use of  a square interacting with a circle? In the world of teapots, all shapes revolve around the shape of round and square and a combination of these two fundamental shapes. It was said that Roundness doesn't restrict to one style and squareness doesn't mean only one form.

In the beginning, potters in Yixing took pride in this logo and supported the idea of hving a universal brand to endorse on their pots. Even senior craftsmasters such as Prof Pan CF even had the square-n-round logo engraved on the inside of the pots he made. My friend even owned of his pots with this trade mark engraved at the interior base of the pot.

However when art and crafts are concerned, brands don't actually sell. It is the name of the artists and the creators of those art pieces sell. The bigger the name, the bigger the price. As a result, square-n-round labels did not create an impact in the consumer market other than telling people the products were from state-run Yixing factory. Craftsmasters and renown potters continue to sell their products using their very own labels, their names and the fame that came along with these names.

As more and more potters go private and have their own kilns as well as market their own products, people soon forget that there is such brand known as the square-n-round labels. Even the factory that promoted the brand turned into a research institute, promoting the culture of the Yixing ware.

A green-label teapot

A flat round pot

This a pot I collected in the 80s. I bought a total of ten pots from an importer. It is made in the 1st factory in Yixing during that time. As the demand of Yixing teapots was not that high during the 80s, the market was also small, mainly in the South East Asia region. Later years as the demand of Yixing ware increased, more and more factories were set up to meet demand.

Today, most of the teapot makers set up their own private kilns and become bosses. The production of teapots falls into private hands. With stiff competition from private kilns, most of the Yixing factories were forced to close down. The bigger factories then become training and research institutes. This is to make sure that younger generation potters can be groomed in this trade and the Yixing tradition can e passed down.

With over 20 thousands potters and numerous private kilns in Yixing, the teapot business is highly competitive. In this business, the status of the potter is the most important factor to measure the success of a potter. A few potters with the title of grandmaster are the most successful ones, this is follow by senior craftmasters, craftmasters, assistant craftsmaster and then technical staff. Potters without any title find it hard to market their teapots at a premium price. Since most vendors will offer very low price for their teapots. Some potters will have to mass produce their teapots and sell at a lower price and hope that profitability can be sustained through quantities (meaning sell more). Others will have to make imitation teapots (pots bearing other potters' names) to survive or even make a fortune. This explains why today there are so many imitation teapots that flood the market. What makes it worst is that assistant craftsmasters will fake craftmasters's work and craftsmasters will fake grandmasters' work, all for the sake of making more money.

A green stone from Qintian

Here is another green stone from Qintian for sharing:

Qintian is a town in Zhejiang where seal stones of up to a hundred different varieties are found. These valuable resources have been seriously depleted due to deliberate mining over the past few centuries

The best among these seal stones is the Deng Kwangtung follows by Feng Mengqin. Other varieties includes the blue star , San Baolue (a green stone) and Lantin (blue nail). Great masters over the years have created numerous masterpieces. Some of these works of art can be seen if you pay a visit to the various private stone museums in Qintian. If you happen to be in Zhejiang, do pay a visit to these museum and I am sure you will be in for a treat. The exquisite masterpieces  on displaywill set you thinking, how come people in this part of the world are so talented and creative. They practically can turn any piece of unattractive stone into a masterpiece.

Lantin stone carving

Feng Mengqin stone carving

 

 If you look at this piece of art-work, you can imagine the hard work and thought put in by the master who created it. It is carved from of a piece of Feng Mengqin. The theme is Moon is round and flowers are fine (My apology: direct translation from mandarin).

Another Qintian stone carving (Lantin) M

An old bell-shaped pot

An old bell-shaped pot for sharing.

This pot was purchased in the 80s, one of my earliest collection of pots. The potter's name was engraved at the underside of the lid, no idea who he was as the characters used are not clearly identified.

This is the frustration I faced in the early days. I cannot read the name of the potter found at the base of the teapots I bought. This is because the engraving style (Chuan Shu) is very cursive and complicated, totally different from modern Chinese characters. This style of engraving originated as early as the Qin period (some 2000 years ago) and is still frequently used by engravers of today. Another frustrating thing is that there was hardly any literature on teapots and the Yixing culture of pottery available. It was difficult to check who the potter was even if you could read his name on the pot.

With more and more information available these days on Yixing teapots and potters (through internet), I began to know more about the potters and their lives. In my free time, I would go through all the teapots in my collection trying to find out who the potters were. As a result of this intense search, I found out that quite a number of the Yixing pots I bought in the early days are indeed made by famous potters. Most of these potters were in fact apprentices that went through the rank and became masters themselves.

If one understand the Chuan Shu way of engraving the Chinese characters, it would make life much easier when reading these characters is concerned. One example of the Chuan Shu type of engraving generally found on teapots:

Of  course for great grandmaster like Gu Zingzhou, there is a lot of information on the seals he used for his teapots so much so that teapot cheats can imitate his seals (there is tremendous value in pots bearing his names). Hence 99.9% of teapots bearing Gu's seals are not really teapots made by the master himself. Usually Gu's pots can only appear in the auction markets where the highest ever recorded price to date was over 17 millions RMB. There are 10 teapots from the master that fetched over 10 millions in auctions.

Seals of the legendary Gu Zingzhou

Gu's famous pot, Crossing the New Bridge

Gu Zingzhou in his younger days

Guess who is the lady next to Gu Zingzho? She has also become a grandmaster herself. Her teapots are also highly sought after by collectors all over the world.

Cultural Revolution artefacts

Cultural Revolution era was indeed a period of turmoil in the history of China where many innocent people were persecuted and precious lives were lost. However this era also witnessed many cultural artefacts produced with themes that glorified the common folks such as soldiers, peasants and ordinary workers. Chinese paintings, porcelains, ceramics, figurines and other handicrafts all produced with revolutionary slogans and communism ideologies on them. Even the Yixing teapots were affected by this revolutionary wave of the time.

Figurines were produced to commemorate soldiers and heroes who sacrificed their lives during the Cultural Revolution era. Vases from Jingdezhen were painted with farmers rather than the traditional themes of flowers and mountains and landscapes. Even great artist who lived during that era had to paint something that reflect the spirit of that time to avoid been branded as against the party and revolution. Great artist like Li Keran had to have red flags and the communes in his brush paintings with some slogans that glorify the party.

Interestingly, artifacts from the Cultural Revolution era had become collectors items in this part of the world in the early 80s. There are professionals here who have deep passion for the handicrafts made during the Cultural Revolution era. Many art and craft shops here had a great variety of artifacts for sale, ranging from badges, figurines to paintings. Stamps of that era were also hot items and these stamps are very valuable by today's market value.

Chairman Mao at Yan'an

 

Support Vietnamese people against the American aggressors

This is a figurine made to glorify a soldier who lost his life to save others. He was Lei Fung, an 18 year-old soldier of the CCP, who crashed his carriage into a lamp-post to avoid a crowd when the horse turned violent beyond control. The poor soldier died instantly. I bought this pieces of art work in the 80s as the figurine captured the terrible moment when Lei Fung was seen struggling with the horse to divert the path of the carriage.

 

Dr Norman Bethune

Luxun, a scholar

Porcelain painting produced in the 60s

 

Jingdezhen vases showing peasants at work

An ordinary pot 2

Here is another ordinary Yixing teapot. One tends to see a lot of such pots in the 80s and 90s era. In those days, these pots usually did not catch people's attention. This is because they are too ordinary and also there were better teapots around to choose from. But today, even these ordinary pots of past years are not easy to find in the market. They become extraordinary due to age.

This is a twin colour teapot that comes with 2 sizes. Some come with ball filters inside, other with the China Yixing mark at the bottom. Some are made by craftsmasters (if you are lucky), others by ordinary factory workers.

This pot features plum blossoms, bamboo tree on the body and a pine tree as knob on the lid.

This is classic theme known as the Three Friends of Winter. Oriental artists like to paint these subjects to depict the hardy nature of these plants that can survive well under harsh winter conditions. Hence these subjects also frequently appear on teapots and other ceramic works.

Hexagonal pot

A unique hexagonal teapot made by Fan Qihua. Every part of the teapot revolves around the hexagonal shape. The body, the sprout, the lid, the knob and also the handle are all in hexagonal shape.

This teapot has a big hexagonal lower body which abruptly reduces to half the size midway and ends with a hexagonal lid and knob. .This will be a disaster in design if it is an engineering component. Why, drastic change of section will sure introduce severe stress concentration leading to failure of an engineering part. But for ceramics, it is a different story. It only experiences thermal stresses which ceramics are well able to withstand. Other than that, this is a very creative teapot design and very artistic and aesthetic, pleasing to the eye and an enjoyment for using it to brew your favourite cup of Chinese tea.

The potter, Fan Qihua

范其华 高级工艺美术师 江苏省美术协会会员 无锡市美术协会会员 1964年1月生于江苏宜兴，从小生长在陶艺之乡。1980年从事紫砂陶行业，师承中国工艺美术大师徐汉棠，并得到老师悉心传教。多年来一直致力于紫砂工艺的创作和研究，有许多原创力作问世，作品在国内外多次展出得奖，并深得海内外爱收藏家的厚爱。

Pot of abundance

This is the theme for this pot, plenty of provision.

In this pot, there are squirrels in the midst of an abundance in supplies (grapes). This is a good theme as most people want to live a life full of supplies.

Animals in the wild live a simple life. All they ever want is plenty of food and a safe haven to live in, well protected from all types of predators.

An old buffalo pot

Here is another old classic pot made in the 70s with a ball filter inside.

This time there is a buffalo sitting on the lid.

Buffalo had been a symbol of diligence and hard work in the life of peasants. As old China was an agriculture country, this farm animal was inseparable from peasants whose livelihood depended very much on farming. With no sophistical farming equipment in old China, the buffalo ploughed the land faithfully and prepared it for farming. Undoubtedly, people of China had high regards for this animal. Hence the image of buffalo appeared in paintings and other cultural artifacts such as teapots and ceramics. There was a famous artist, Li Keran, whose buffalo paintings fetch millions in auction markets.

 

Buffalo painting by Li Keran

Li Keran,  a renown artist, was a specialist in buffalo paintings. His buffalos, half immersed in water, look very real and lively. With the country boys talking on the back of the buffalos in a traditional landscape setting, this type of paintings are so poetic and artistic. No wonder his paintings are highly sought after by art lovers.

Li Keran, the artist



An old squirrel pot

Here is an old pot of made in the 70s.

It is a classic shape of  a section of a bamboo with some leaves attached to the body. There is a squirrel on the lid which serves the function of a knob. Teapots of that era usually come with ball filters for filtering tea into the cups.

It is a low cost version of high end teapots designed by craftsmasters. An excellent piece of art.

A piece of rare rock

Stones and rocks are things of nature.

Do you know, sometimes you will find a lot of things about stones and rocks apart from their chemical and physical structures and make-up. Some can even get inspirations from these stones. Nature is wonderful, all good things come from nature. Hope we don't squander away all our natural resources.

Stones and rocks have characters and life. For instance, you will find different patterns and designs on their surfaces. Some with peculiar pictures on them which make them collectors' darlings. These pictures can be landscapes, animals or even calligraphy and numbers. All these things depend on your imagination and creative thinking.

I recently bumped into a friend who has this funny looking piece of stone. When I take a closer look, I got a shock. Guess what did I see.

I saw a roaring tiger standing on a mountain. With its head turned away looking back, it is like telling the world who he is. One might think that he is saying such words: "Stop messing around with me, or else I will devour you". This stone really has character, the only one of its kind in this world. Without hesitation, I acquire this stone for my own enjoyment. Here is the video for sharing:

 

Recently I found out that there is another similar piece of rock owned by a rare stone collector in China.

 

Chinese seals and engraving 吴昌硕

Engraving is an art. There is so much to explore in this art form.

Some Chinese artists also know the art of engraving. Apart from engraving name for others on seals-stones, they also engrave poems, thoughts and famous sayings on seals-stones. Emperor Kangxi had 2 seals stone with engravings to remind him the importance of being a good and caring emperor. These stones were later auctioned for over 3 millions RMB. Apart from emperors and court officials, scholars and artists also indulged in the hobby of engraving and collecting seals. Beside engraving complicated calligraphy (it is really difficult to read the engravings) , others engrave simple paintings such as flowers, bamboo trees, portraits and animals on one side of the stones, then artistic calligraphy on other side while the end of the stone is for engraving a person's name.

Literature on seals engraving

Seals stones

The culture of seals-engraving is deep-rooted in the history of Chinese art. You find seals on paintings, seals on teapots and also seals on ancient document such as Emperors' decrees. It is reported that Emperor Qianlong himself  had over 3000 seals, all craved using the best seals materials. The last Emperor, Puyi, when he fled the palace, he only took with him the three-link seals (carved from Tianhuang, top of the range seals stones) of Qianlong which he later donated to the government hoping for an early release from prison.

I also collect seal stones as I admire the artistic and cultural aspects of different variety of engraving styles and seals stones. Recently I collected one square seals-stone with very fine engraving on its top surface and some unique characters on its end face. Later I discovered that the fine characters were actually 3 poems and at the end of the poems I found the name of the engraver. It was the famous late Qing Artist, Wu Changshou 吴昌硕 . When I search in the web, I found a lot of information on this artist and his engraving work.

You need a magnifying glass to read the poems

No idea what the characters meant, beyond my comprehension

This is ancient calligraphy, Chuan Shu

Wu Changshou

Stamps issued to recognize Wu's work

 There is an interesting story regarding this great engraver. Wu had a wife who passed away. Wu loved his wife very much and everyday he was thinking about the good times they had together. He really missed her. One day he dreamt of her in his dream and she seemed like waving to him. Afraid of losing this feeling of her, he Immediately got up and engraved his wife image on a seal stone for remembrance. There is always a soft side in a great man 's character.


 

Painting by Wu

Feng Qinfang's twins

Feng Qinfang, grand daughter of Feng Kweilin (a famous potter of the 1950s), is a gifted craftsmaster noted for her imitation of natural things such as bamboo, pine trees and flowers. She is also good at crafting teapots of all shapes from round to square and tall to short. With hard work and perseverance and under proper tutorship from different masters, she stands out among her peers in terms of skills and techniques. Truly a successor of her grand-father, Feng Kweilin.

姓名：冯勤芳
性别：女
职称：工艺美术师
出生年月：1968-9     

Feng Qinfang

冯桂林之孙女.桂林先生（1902～1946），紫砂名家，擅长松竹梅题材及仿真自然塑器。其制品或圆或方、或长或短、或高域矮、或深沉肃穆，给人以“千奇万状信手出、鬼斧神工难类同”之感，为紫砂历史上不可多得的名师艺匠之一。民间工艺讲究传承，尤其是家传，应该说冯勤芳做壶有了得天独厚的传承优势，成了真正意义上的“桂林传人”，加上她勤奋好学，能吃苦耐劳，在当时这样一种良好的氛围中，又遇到了名师，以致冯勤芳很快在同道中脱颖而出，现在来看她的作品，似乎有桂林遗风，无论是光货还是花货，韵味十足，传统的根植得很牢，在她们这个年龄段的做壶人中，应该说是个佼佼者。随其夫低调做人不张扬，认真做壶不“搭浆”（为宜兴方言，意思是做事将就、马虎）,成为真正意义上的”桂林传人”.

Pine-tree teapot

A teapot made in the 70s. It has a ball filter inside.

The pot is globular shape that has features of pine tree on it. The lid has a tree branch with some leaves. This tiny brunch serves as grip for the purpose of lifting. Both the sprout and the handle look like massive rough branches of the pine tree. This in direct contrast to the smooth body of the pot.

This teapot is considered a large pot by today's standard. This large-size teapot is not ideal for tea appreciation ceremony. For tea appreciation, the process is more laborious. One needs to wash the pot inside and outside with hot water, the cups and other accessories. Large amount of hot water is consumed before your guests get to enjoy a cup of fragrant tea. On top of that, a lot of tea leaves need to be added to the pot due to the pot's capacity. If you use small cups for your guests, the tea will hush out from the sprout to overfill the cups rapidly. It can be quite awkward at times. Definitely it is not elegant to be used in tea ceremony. I would prefer the traditional small-size teapots for tea appreciation.

However, if you drink a lot of tea, the pot is ideal as the capacity is just nice for brewing tea to quench your thirst. I drink a lot of puerh in a day, I tend to use large-size teapot for this purpose. Especially when you drink puerh during a meal, you need to drink a lot of tea to accompany the food to its destination.
m

Art on teapots

Since the late Qing dynasty, it has become a trend to incorporate art and calligraphy on teapots by potters to enhance the cultural aspects and value of teapots. It is said that the traditional things of art and calligraphy can be passed down as the teapots are handed over from generations to generations and the teapots can also be valuable due to the cultural aspects carried on them.

There is evidence to indicate this point. In 2011, a teapot be Gu Zingzhou was auctioned for over 17 millions RMB. This teapot was made by a grandmaster of teapot. Not only that, there was a Chinese painting engraved on it by an equally famous artist of the time, Wu Hufan. Because the teapot represented two great master's works, it became a highly contested item during an auction and the final bid settled at over 17 millions.

Here is a square teapot made in the 20th century by a renown potter Wu Yaoting. You can see a Chinese painting beautifully engraved on one of its side.

It is through a teapot (as it is passed down to the next generation), these features of art and calligraphy can be preserved. As a result, the cultural aspects of a teapot is far more greater in value than how much it is worth in the market.

Friendship teapot

Here is a teapot called the friendship teapot. A teapot made in the 70s and 80s .

This teapot was made to commemorate the restoration of tie between Chin and the US after the first ever visit of an American president, President Nixon, to China in 1972. The visit was the result of an sport exchange of table tennis players between the 2 countries. This was known as the pingpong diplomacy where China used the campaign effectively to develop ties with western countries through exchange of table tennis players during the 70s.

These teapots were made by many potters, some were craftsmasters of the time. This particular one happened to be made by Li Pifang.

Yu Lan's (房玉兰) traditional-shaped teapot

Here is teapot made by Fung Yu Lan (房玉兰), a senior craftsmaster of Yixing.

This teapot was bought in the 80s when the potter was just an apprentice at the factory. Obviously she has made it these days as she was promoted to the rank of senior craftsmaster in teapot making.

It is a good investment to buy teapots made by talented potters when they are still relatively unknown. As these potters will one day make it through their skills and creativity. The time will come when their talents are recognized. When they are promoted to higher rankings and their pots will be highly sought after by collectors. This is when your investment will pay of.

Yu Lan was born in 1961. She learnt the Yixing art from Zhoa Wanfen and Wu Tongfen. Later she learnt creative designing from the grandmaster, Xu Hantang. As she was diligent, she picked up various skills and techniques quickly and received good appraisals from her masters.

In 1987, she was selected for further studies at the technical college where she advanced her skills in Yixing pottery. She mastered the traditional techniques of the Yixing art and ventured into creative and innovation work. She eventually developed her very own style. She exhibited her works both locally and internationally and received good comments and won gold award.



房玉兰 紫砂

女、1961年5月生，高级工艺美术师。1977年先后随曹婉芬、吴同芬学艺，后又随紫砂艺术大师国家工艺美术大师徐汉棠老师创作设计，由于自幼酷爱陶艺，专心好学，技艺进步较快，深得老师领导的好评。1987年被选送中央工艺学院陶瓷系进修，从而系统地领悟到紫砂传统工艺美术的内涵，工艺水平日趋成熟，形成独特的风格，在传统中力求变化，选型构思新颖，做工俊秀细腻，作品屡次在国内外名人名作展上获金奖。

职称、职务: 宜兴紫砂工艺二厂工艺美术师

作品《仿古》、《掇只》在2002年马来西亚国际名人名作展上获金奖。代表作《北瓜壶》、《天乐辟邪》、《恒源》等被博物馆收藏，并与上海书画家朱屺瞻、唐云、刘旦宅、谢稚柳、程十发、陈佩秋、关良等合作，深受国内外客商的喜爱及收藏。