Past Imperfect, The Art of Inventive Repair

This condensed globular form Chinese teapot was made from purple granular “zisha” clay (containing mica, quartz and iron) and found only in Yixing (pronounced ee-shing), in the east coast province of Jiangsu. Due to its unique self seasoning capabilities, after many years of use you can brew tea just by pouring boiling water into an empty pot

A metalsmith created a new lid out of brass after the original one broke or was lost. I love the simple hand-hammered form and delicately curled knob. Teapot measures 4″ high, 8″ wide

Chinese character maker’s marks are incised on the bottom. Please excuse me if I have shown the marks upside down

This example has its original lid, which is amazing, as it was recovered from the 1840 Desaru shipwreck, discovered in May 2001

Photos courtesy of Nanhai Marine Archaeology

Tags: Chinese, metal lid, pottery, Yixing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 10:25 am and is filed under teapot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.