Pot among pots

The other day when browsing for some Chinese crafts on display during this festive lunar new year season, I stumbled upon something special. There was this pot among many pots that were on display on an exhibition site. All the other pots looked very ordinary and most people could differentiate them as new fakes with big name like Gu Jingzhou crafted at the back. The colour on the pots looked like a layer of shoe shine being applied on them.

However, there was this pot stood out by itself among all the trash pots. Although its colour looked (a deep brownish hue) similar to others, there was a different kind of class that made it shone like no other pots. At once I realized that this must be an old pot (made from old zisha clay), made some fifty years ago. I checked with the trader who displayed all these ware on a make-shift tent. To my surprise, the price he quoted was not high. However I did not buy the pot immediately.

The trader was from China. He brought in a lot of Chinese crafts like vases, figurines and many other auspicious  objects people would buy during the new year season. He would displayed them on make-shift tent during this festive season as he reckoned business would be good. A lot of residents from this region would buy vases from him to celebrate the new year. Some would buy figurines of goats to usher in the new year. Others would be buying paintings and flowers. Yet there would be those who hang around looking for something special if not valuable to buy.Usually when the new year was around the corner, the trader would have to sell off his ware at a huge discount as he did not want to take them back to China.

Just before the lunar new year began, I visited the exhibition site again and the pot was still there. It seemed that no one recognized that it was indeed an old pot. So nobody bothered to ask the price. The trader found that no one liked the pot, he sold it to me at a discounted price.

 

I took the pot home, cleaned it up and soaked it in hot boiling water. The engraving on the pot revealed that it was probably made during the republic era. It was indeed a good pot as water came out smoothly from its spout without any spillage.

There was a saying in the collectors' circle, opportunity belongs to those who come prepared. This means if you know your stuff, you can pick up good things in the midst of thrash.

Chicken cup for drinking tea

The world most expensive tea cup, the Chenghua Toicai Chicken Cup, was auctioned last year in Hong Kong for a record 36 millions USD. Guess what, the owner of this cup used it to sip Chinese tea. Actually, the Ming Emperor, emperor of the Chenghua reign, made the cup for wine drinking. This cup is more common referred to as the chicken cup.

 

A rich businessman from China successfully bought this chicken cup during an auction in Hong Kong last April after paying a hefty 280 millions HKD for it. He was reported to have signed 24 times using his black gold credit card. When asked if he would use it to drink tea, he said it would disrespectful for him to do so as this cup was the emperor's favorite cup to drink wine.

Sipping tea with a 280 million HKD cup

 

However, not long after he owned the chicken cup, he was seen sipping tea from it. He broke his promise. So what is so special about the chicken cup?

It is one of 20 such cups remaining in the world. Most of them are in museums with only 3 in private collections. Emperor Chenghua (Ming dynasty) married his care taker (maid in the imperial court) who was 17 years his senior after he succeeded his father as emperor. He made her concubine (Concubine Wan) and loved her a lot. The emperor had a weak personality and most of the time he would seek advice from Concubine Wan on state affairs. As she loved simple things, especially porcelain ware with light glaze and simple décor. The emperor ordered the imperial kiln to make fine porcelains using light glaze and simple designs like chicken (mother hen with some chicks searching for grains on the ground). This chicken cups ad been used by the emperor to drink wine with concubine Wan. Incidentally palace records had shown down the chicken cups were worth hundred thousand qian (ancient Chinese currency) even during the Wanli reign (later part of the Ming dynasty). The chicken cups and other porcelains made during this era is collectively known as the famous Chenghua ware that worth hundreds of millions of dollars in auction markets.

Less than 20 of chicken cups in the world

 

The Chenghua ware was unique in a way. The thin chicken cups were made from very fine superb Kaoliang clay from Jingdezheng. It was difficult to make the chicken cups as most of them would either broke or distorted during the firing process. Hence there are so few of such cups in existence today. Moreover the type of clay used for the cup was already depleted during the Ming dynasty. No matter how good you are in faking the design, you are not going get this clay to make the cup. The wall of the cup is so thin that if you shine the torch light through it, you would seen fine yellowish hue (with a trace of pink) through it.

This is how the Chenghua ware was made. The potter would use blue and whit glaze to draw the outline of the drawing on the ware. It was then sent to the kiln to fire the ware at a high temperature of 1200 degrees. Then the potter would use different glaze to fill up the rest of the picture. The fully coloured ware was then fired again at a lower temperature of several hundreds degrees. Hence this type of ware is also called Toucai meaning glazes compete against each other, the outline which was underglazed and the picture which was overglazed.

 

Another set of  Chenghua cups depicting grapes

Chenghua jar

 

Red agate

My collection of red agate beads.

This type of agate is generally found in the mountainous region in Yunnan of China. The agate had been used by the imperial court in ancient China as a material for stone carvings. Over hundreds of years of mining, the resources of red agate has depleted significantly. This causes the price of this agate escalated steeply recently.

Intricate carvings jewelry items of red agate have become collectors' new darlings.

Amber beads

Amber is fossilized tree resin formed million of years ago. It has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects such as necklaces and beads for bracelets and pendants.

Valuable amber embedded in coal deposit in China

Translucent amber in yellowish hue

Insides trapped inside amber

My collection of amber beads.

Peridot bracelet

Peridot is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one colour, an olive green. The intensity and tint of the green, however, depends on how much iron is contained in the crystal structure, so the color of individual peridot gems can vary from yellow—to olive—to brownish-green. The most valued color is a dark olive-green.

Peridot rough

Peridot is gem-quality olivine. Olivine is a silicate mineral with formula of (Mg, Fe)₂SiO₄. As peridot is the magnesium-rich variety (forsterite) the formula approaches Mg₂SiO₄.

Here is a peridot bracelet I bought earlier in the market.

Carving of rutilated quartz

This is a carving created from a rutilated quartz. There are thick rutiles springing up from the bottom.

Here is a video for sharing.

 

The carving depicts a theme of prosperity through gold nuggets and jade pieces.

A cup of puerh of the 70s

Antique puerh tea is too costly to consume. Even if you have money, you may not be able to buy it off the shelf, let alone someone offering you a cup of puerh tea more than a 100 years old.

Due to its scarcity, Red Label puerh tea is equally expensive even tough the tea was made in the 50s., almost 70 years ago. However, the Yellow Label puerh tea, made in the 70s, is still within the budget of tea connoisseurs. Although the tea is still expensive, you don't need to buy the whole tea cake if you want to entertain your guests with some fine quality puerh tea. Buying the loose tea can save you a lot of money upfront as your aim is just to enjoy the tea, not buying it for the sake of investment.



Yellow Label tea cake

If you have connections, you can still buy some loose Yellow Label puerh. Check it out with your local tea community as someone might just have this precious tea in his inventory. He may be able to sell you some loose tea taken from a partially consumed tea cake. It is usually sold per gram.

Loose puerh sold for immediate consumption

Sometimes it make sense for tea connoisseurs to buy small quantity of loose tea for tea appreciation. If you buy one whole tea cake, you would rather keep it for investment. Although there is temptation to break open the tea cake to drink it, there is also a desire to keep it intact for its investment value. Buying loose tea doesn't have this problem. You just paid for what you intend to drink.

Add caption

The loose tea is carefully loaded into the pot

From the pot to a holding vessel

From the pot to a holding vessel

The Yellow Label has been around for over 50 years, one would expect a deep brown colour in the tea as it is being poured out. Thin film of oil (tea oil) can be seen floating on the tea due to its age. The tea is smooth and pleasant to the taste buds. There will be some medicinal flavor and scent and the after-taste (the taste that linger in your mouth after swallowing the tea) is pronounce.


Fine puerh tea of the 70s as it flows into a cup

Deep brown colour of the tea

Notice the layer of oil on the surface

Well, let me have your feedback if you do have a chance to drink this tea.

Valuable puerh tea

Puerh tea produced before 1950s was generally considered as antique puerh tea. This tea was made by private companies who followed the traditional tea making methods. This means the tea was generally processed from raw puerh tea leaves and compressed into various forms. The most common compressed shape was the puerh tea cakes that weighed 360 g. After so many years of storage, this tea had matured into a lively deep brown colour which gave off a fine delicate scent and a powerful taste. As there are not many of such tea cakes around, they are not easily found in any retail tea shops today.  However, these tea cakes are mostly in the hands of tea collectors. The tea cakes often change hands among the collectors with undisclosed price.

The puerh tea made during that era was typified by the brands it bore. Hence tea lovers call this tea the Branded Tea. Some of the prestigious brands include Song Pin brand, Tong Qin brand and Fook Yuan Qhan. These tea cakes are more than 80 years old and sometimes they may appear in tea auction.

Song Pin brand

Apart from the Branded Tea, the next category of valuable puerh tea is the so-called Labeled Tea. This tea was produced after 1950s when China was under the rule of the Communist party.This type of tea is typified by the printing on the tea wrapper. In the centre of the tea wrapper, there was a Chinese character Cha (which means tea) which was surrounded by eight smaller Chinese character Chong (which means middle). An interesting to observe is that the character Cha was printed in different colours, red, green, yellow and blue. The very first generation of these Labeled tea cakes were the Red Labels where the Cha was printed in red. It was said that after the red army of Chairman Mao took over the control of the country, the tea labels were printed in the colour of the party, ie red. Incidentally these Red Label tea cakes are very costly.

Yellow Labels

Green Labels

Blue Labels

Do you know how much is this Red Label tea cake cost?

I once saw a piece of the red Label tea cake on display in a down town Chinese Supermarket. It carry a hefty price tag of 35000 dollars. Of course the tea cake was definitely beyond my budget.

Red Label tea cake

Then one day, I spotted this web page on collecting puerh, it was mentioned that the tea cakes were mostly in private collectors' hands. Most collectors are not willing to part with the tea cakes due to their scarcity. However, one managed to persuade the other to sell him a Red Label cake. Guess what was the price? 3 million Taiwanese dollars, about S$120000. In 1995, the Red Label was only selling for 10000 Taiwanese dollars.

88 Green Cake

Another important tea is the Green Label which people call it the 88 Green Cakes. The tea was processed in the 80s and a certain Mr Chan from Hong Kong purchased a large quantity of such green tea cakes from Meng Hai factory. He cleared the ware house of this tea at a low cost as the tea was harsh at that time and no one showed any interest in the tea. The tea was harsh as it was still at a very young age and required sometime to mature. As time moves on, the tea matures. Now the tea is so good that it may replace the Red Label tea cakes in time to come. Guess how much is this tea cake? In Taiwan, it is selling at 40000 Taiwanese dollars.

Another famous brand

The Green Label, 88 Green Cake

The Yellow Label

Another important tea is the Yellow Labels. This tea was made in the 70s. Today, the tea shows exceptional quality after almost 40 years of maturity. I shall talk more this tea next time.

Hidden secrets in tea labels

Do you know how to tell the age of puerh tea? Especially the puerh produced in the 50s right up to the 90s or even today? These puerh tea cakes were produced in Menghai factory (state-owned) and wrapped in rice paper with the Chinese character Cha (tea in Chinese) in the middle, surrounded by eight Chinese character Chong. They are simply called the Chong Cha brand of puerh tea.

These tea cakes are also known as the Labeled Tea and the Chinese character Cha was printed in different colour, from red, green, yellow to blue. Before that (in the early 1900s), the puerh tea production was in private hands. These private companies mainly processed raw compressed puerh tea for local consumption and also for the export market (to regions in south east Asia). The tea cakes produced prior to 1950s are collectively known as the Branded Tea. Some of the notable brands include Song Pin, Tong Xin, Fook Yuan Qhan, etc. These tea cakes are now more than 80 years in age and are considered antique tea and command a very high price. Generally these tea cakes are beyond every tea connoisseurs' budget. You can only taste them in your dreams.

An example of a Branded Tea cake

But some of the Label tea cakes are still within the budget of some rich tea connoisseurs, even though it is not easy to find them in the tea market today. You need to check with tea collectors to see if they are willing to part with them. Some of these Label Tea puerh cakes can be seen in the pictures below. Take note of the colour of the Chinese character Cha.  Of all these Label tea cakes, the Red Labels are the most expensive ones. They were produced in the 1950s.

The Yellow Label puerh cakes

The Green Label  puerh cake

The Red Label puerh cake, the jewel of all Label tea

The Blue Label puerh cake

When you buy these Labeled puerh cakes, how can you tell their age? When were they produced? Some can be from the 70s and others can be from the 50s. Even some produced in the 80s are equally costly to purchase, if you happen to find any in the market. Although the colour of the character Cha (Red to blue) can tell roughly which era the tea was produced, but no body can tell precisely what year the tea was made.

If you can't tell their age or the year the tea was processed, you can seek experts' advice. These experts studied tea in such an extent that they not even tasted the tea, they also examined and scrutinized the tea labels that were stuck on the tea cakes. To be honest, they really spent a long time to study these tea labels that they eventually found the hidden secrets behind all these labels.

What they found was astonishing. The tea labels printed during different times (from the 50s to present day) exhibited different characteristics. For instance, the Chinese characters that were printed on the labels showed diversity in styles, strokes and size, some strokes in these characters were long and extended to other part of the characters. Certain character (the character Chong) was printed extra fat in the middle. These different styles and strokes of the characters clearly revealed which year the cakes were made. Not only that, the quality of the paper used to print such labels, their thickness and texture are all tell-tale signs that gave the age of these cakes. A difference in style or stroke in the character can means a difference of 20 to 30 years in age. A wrong judgment can set you back a great deal in your bank account. To invest in some good aged puerh tea, you need to acquire this fundamental knowledge of reading the minute differences in tea labels. If you want to know these hidden details, you need to enrol to a tea college and get a diploma to become an expert yourself.

These minute details reveal the hidden secrets

Different styles in the character will revealed the age

Abnormally fat character became a trade mark of the period

Do you spot any difference?

All sorts of hidden details in tea labels

Even if you master all these hidden details, there will still be fakes in the market to confuse you. As these tea cakes are very costly, there will be a lot of unscrupulous tea merchants wanting a pie in the tea market by producing tea with fake labels to fool you. If you don't want to fall into their trap, you need to examine the tea inside (remove the wrapper), or taste it if it is permissible. These tea cakes are indeed very precious in today's market.

A nice cup of puerh from the Yellow Label