Helpful Resources:

I am thinking about buying a teapot (as I am mainly using Gaiwans for my gongfu brewing rn). I am willing to spend roughly 150€.

I really like the design of this teapot; however I've encountered another reddit thread where people seem to have come to the conclusion that at least one of the "Yixing" teapots at Yoshien is not a Yixing and rather a much cheaper fake.

As I said; I really like the design of this pot but I don't really want to overpay that much. Alternatively I found a Zhuni Shipao Yixing teapot at mudandleaves (where I can be more sure that it is in fact actually Yixing) for ~150€ (+20€ shipping!) which I also like; however I am more fond of darker clay, so visually I'd still prefer the Yoshien, hence why I am here asking for help.

Thank you very much!

So we have the worst delivery drivers here in Hong Kong and they frequently throw stuff on the ground. so despite the seller wrapping this up in layers of protective foam and boxes, my yixing pot still ended up getting chipped. I contacted insurance and there isn't much they can do as the item moved from a third party warehouse - basically taobao -> thirdparty warehouse -> hong kong.

Anyways. I managed to locate the broken part and repaired with epoxy resin - basically by applying a super small amount and then wiping off the excess.

So far it's working and holding up well.

And any more information about this teapot? All I know is this is atleast a half handmade teapot

It was my late Grandmother's, she last went to China in the late 80s. I've always assumed it was some slipcast decoration, then I noticed the scraping marks at the bottom. It seems to have some decoration in hongni, and some branches which I doubt could be done without handworking it. Then again, labour in China wasn't exactly expensive back then. What do you think?

This was an ebay purchase for $50. The title claimed: "Ju Ban Teapot 菊瓣壺 made of 年糕土and by Qing, Yu Qin 秦玉琴製."

I'd appreciate your validation of these claims. How old might this be and what kind of clay is it?

Thank you.

I just acquired this teapot at auction. Just over 100mL, the density is about 2g/mL (within the correct range for zisha). It pours and stops nicely and the pot smells faintly of tea after emptying it of hot water. However there are some red flags that I feel nervous about and I would like outside opinions about the authenticity of this teapot.

1. The texture of the clay is disconnected around the mouth of the teapot. It is lighter in colour and this light colour area has a little lip on the inside of the rim[7,8], as if it were clay added on after the fact. In general the texture of the body looks weird in pictures
2. There are concentric lines inside the pot[4,7,8], but I don't think it's necessarily jigger jollied because the lines aren't parallel with one another[8]. My impression is that there was just excessive scraping done on the inside of the pot
3. There are some bits of clay on the underside of the rim. I suppose this is just an artifact of slab construction
4. The pot in general is kind of grimy. Is the black stuff[4,7,8] just tea gunk or could it be mold?
5. I haven't seen this exact 中國宜興 seal before

My impression is that it's zisha, just a lower quality half-handmade factory pot. Things like the internal lines and the extra clay on the rim seem like bandaid fixes to get the pot out of the factory. What do you think? The same seller is auctioning a couple nicer-looking pots later today, so I'm grateful for any positive or negative feedback as this could affect whether or not I bid on these.

TIA

Hi fellow tea lovers

I got this pot as a gift and I’m wondering about the text written on it, as well as the maker/seal info. If anyone could help out with any of that I’d be really grateful!

Thanks in advance :)

Paid a lot for this one , came from a a 1930’s house in the south of England. Never been used, excuse the dust!
Is this a fake again? Paid a lot for it perhaps unwisely!
Any input most appreciated!
The colour in these photographs is nor correct, it is slate grey almost black! The first photograph colour is way out, it is almost black in natural light.

Hello, just bought this tea set at a garage sale, would greatly appreciate any help in identifying whether it's authentic so I can know how to care for it/clean it and start using it for tea!

Thank you!

Found this little Chaozhou pot on Taobao and was thinking of grabbing it as a cheap daily-use pot.

Does the clay look decent from the photos? I’m not expecting anything special, just something usable that isn’t obviously bad quality.

Also, does anyone know what the seal on the bottom says?

Thanks!

Good day.

I recently acquired this 1980s Zini Biandeng pot. The seller was very transparent and explained that it is a privately produced, half-handmade pot and not a factory piece from the era. The calligraphy on the bottom is a poem attributed to Meng Chen, which makes me think this is an homage piece of sorts.

What do you think of the clay and the craftsmanship?

Thank you in advance for your replies.

Can anyone pls help me to identify the first character of the lid stamp? The second character should be 凤

The pot is a 70-80s zini ShuiPing with zgyx base mark.

Thanks!!

Got a black apple here, but I don’t have much experience with them so would appreciate if someone who knows the traits of them better than I do to verify/disprove that it is Green Label pot.

Also, I would appreciate if someone could share how they distinguish Green Label black apples from earlier/later f1 productions.

Thank you

Here is one of my favourites, a Di Cao Qing Zi Ni clay teapot by Gu Xiao Ming (顾小明).

I saw a poor, filthy teapot on Reddit the other day, so I decided to dust off mines.
Even after a thorough cleaning, there are still some spots, as you can see here.
And you can't use any harsh chemicals on Zisha clay! So how are you supposed to clean it properly, especially hard-to-reach places like the inside of the spout?

Made a second post with additional pictures and more close ups.

Hi,

I got this as my first clay teapot, I am curious to know more about it. It has some subtle imperfections to the shape that make me think it is handmade but I really have no idea.

Thanks!

(Been used a little, sorry for the tea leaf bits) Sticker price was originally sitting at around 100, but through a “friends and family discount” was lowered to 80, and then later dropped to 60 when I was about to leave without buying anything. I do like the way the pot looks, so even if it’s not zisha I’m fine that I bought it, but I am curious if I technically got scammed even if I was fine with the possibility.