在线国产一区二区_成人黄色片在线观看_国产成人免费_日韩精品免费在线视频_亚洲精品美女久久_欧美一级免费在线观看

?
中文USEUROPEAFRICAASIA
Culture

Precious pots make good cuppa

By Zhang Kun in Shanghai ( China Daily ) Updated: 2013-08-19 14:19:18

Precious pots make good cuppa

Zhou Wei / China Daily

Yixing clay might be the most expensive mud in the world. A Yixing clay teapot sold for more than 12 million yuan ($1.96 million) at a Beijing auction in 2010.

Zhang Changying, a connoisseur of "zisha" (purple sand), the Chinese name of Yixing clay, readily shares his knowledge from decades spent handling these teapots. His new teahouse, Ming Tao Zhuang, just celebrated its grand opening.

The teahouse doesn't open until almost noon, and guests linger until late at night, enjoying tea from fine ceramics and an exhibition of Yixing teapots.

All the teapots look much the same to untrained eyes - no more than 10 to 15 centimeters in height and diameter, of dark non-glossy surface, with a matching cap on top and mouth on the side.

Precious pots make good cuppa

A handmade zisha pot may sell for a few hundred or thousands of yuan, Zhang says. Souvenir pots can be purchased for 20 to 100 yuan, but Zhang says it is unlikely to be handmade or of pure purple sand. Quality of the clay, the handicraft, artists involved and so on, all play a part in determining the price of a Yixing clay teapot.

"It embodies the essence of Chinese art," Zhang says.

Yixing is a city in Jiangsu province, which has been part of the Yangtze Delta. Silt from the river mixed with endemic algae formed a unique type of rock. Yixing clay is made by grinding and weathering these rocks. "There are mines of it - people have been digging the clay in the same way they mine coal," Zhang explains. Yixing clay has three basic tones of color: purple, red and green. Whichever tone it is, the clay is mostly dark and unglazed, not glossy and shining bright like porcelain.

Artists and intellectuals were involved in making teapots from the 15th century. They composed poems, created paintings and printed personal seals on the pots. Copycat and counterfeit teapots accompanied the development of the handicraft from the very beginning, Zhang adds.

"The fine aesthetics of old-time intellectuals emphasized the restraint and subtlety of the purple sand. They would have their own pots tailor made, with original calligraphy, paintings and seals added."

Yixing clay is baked at lower temperature than porcelain. It is unglazed, or in Zhang's word, "breathable". The teapot absorbs a small amount of the tea as it brewed inside. Sometimes the user will have a pot for each type of tea, to maintain the consistency of the flavor.

In recent decades, Yixing clay teapots have risen rapidly in value.

In the early 1980s as China started to open up to the world, buyers from Taiwan first flocked to Yixing.

Many of the teapots are sold to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

The pot with the record breaking price auctioned by Jiade Auction House in 2010, was made by Gu Jingzhou (1915-1996). Now Gu's students and their students are the top craftsmen in the field.

Craftsmen reach the pinnacle of their career in their 50s, as their eyesight often loses the sharpness after this and they then pass the knowledge of the craft on to the next generation of the family.

Precious pots make good cuppa

Precious pots make good cuppa

Pottery craft a dying art 

Inheriting traditional tin pot technique

 
Editor's Picks
Hot words
Most Popular
 
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 99精彩视频| 亚洲一二三区不卡 | 亚洲www | 精品国产乱码久久久久久牛牛 | 国产第一页在线播放 | 国产婷婷精品 | 日韩精品播放 | 中文字幕第六页 | 自拍偷拍第一页 | 国产日产久久久久久 | 亚洲精品亚洲人成人网 | 射久久| 亚洲国产精品久久 | 亚洲精品欧美视频 | 亚洲高清在线 | 亚洲精品99 | 日韩欧美www | 污网址在线免费观看 | 在线观看毛片网站 | 91精品国产综合久久福利 | 日本最黄视频 | 欧美影片| 亚洲毛片在线观看 | 亚洲视频区 | a√天堂资源在线 | 北条麻妃一区二区三区在线观看 | 久草久| 台湾佬亚洲色图 | 91人人人 | 日本三级电影天堂 | 精品视频在线免费 | 欧洲亚洲精品久久久久 | 国产精自产拍久久久久久 | 欧美区在线 | 欧美日韩在线电影 | 亚洲婷婷综合网 | 成人影院一区二区三区 | 一区二区在线播放视频 | 在线观看www | 精品国产一区二区三区四区 | 成年人在线观看 |