eBay

VINTAGE

CHINESE ‘YIXING’

CLAY TEAPOT WITH

SQUIRREL FINIAL

This listing is for a lovely vintage –

probably 20^th century – reddish clay

Chinese teapot in the Yixing style,

at the very least.

I have been doing some research

(my favourite thing to do) and found

all sorts of contradictions on how to

determine if a teapot is real Yixing

or not (see below for details).

Top level ones are totally handmade

from beginning to end and can cost

tens of thousands of dollars

(because of the skills and time it

takes to produce one).

The next level down is ‘half handmade’.

Not exactly sure what this means

(thrown on a wheel perhaps?)

But the cute squirrel on the lid of this

lovely teapot has to be handmade,

doesn’t he?

His fur, eyes etc are certainly carved

in by a human. I can’t imagine the

bamboo branch and leaves can be

anything but hand applied.

The straining holes inside at the

beginning of the spout have

definitely been hand pierced.

I don’t know enough about pottery

to work out the way the rest of the

teapot was produced so I won’t try.

The clay has all the imperfections

it is supposed to have to be genuine

(see below for explanation of this)

and that is about all I can tell you

regarding its construction.

In the course of this research I only

found 3/4 other teapots with squirrels

on their lids and all had some age

and were all reasonable amounts

of money i.e. over $1000 USD.

The closest looking example was on

Sotheby’s website simply described as:

A Yixing ‘squirrel’ teapot and cover,

20^th century

and estimated at between 5000 – 7000 HKD

It was the same round, flat topped pot

in a similar coloured clay.

The way the Squirrel was positioned

was also very similar but the start of

the tail was thinner than on this one

which then widened.

Sotheby’s one has the same ‘thumbnail’

notch decoration on the lid as this one

which is not a standard detail on other pots

that I have found.

Sotheby’s pot also had the bamboo handle

and spout and the applied bamboo

branch and leaves decoration that

also had an open hole in the end of branch

with no leaves just like the one we are listing.

Biggest difference perhaps is the

Sotheby’s one has a mark under the

base of the pot for

Chenyaozhen zhang.

The teapot we are listing has an

indistinct impressed character

mark only under the lid.

This area of collecting, like a lot of

Chinese collectables, is a minefield

and I am not going to pretend I have

expert knowledge of Yixing teapots

because I do not - I like them and

find them intriguing but that is

not the same thing.

After doing more research on them

I think I might be more confused

than I was before.

According to one site dedicated to

Yixing teapots:

‘When describing what a real Yixing teapot looks like, many collectors are at a loss to put into words what distinguishes a real Yixing clay (zisha) teapot from other clay teapots; they just know when they see and feel the teapot for themselves. ‘

A decidedly unhelpful statement in my opinion.

This site also states;

Fortunately, besides the texture and color of the teapot, there are a number of signs or ‘imperfections’ that indicate the authenticity of an Yixing Teapot.

There are four kinds of ‘imperfections’ which can be found on true Yixing Teapots: 1) Tiny white spots; 2) Tiny black spots; 3) Tiny holes on parts of the surface; 4) Tiny bumps on the surface.

My summary of these anomalies are –

the tiny white spots come from naturally

occurring minerals in the clay;

the black spots are from the separation

of iron particles from the clay in the firing;

the tiny holes are from shrinking sand sized

particles during the firing;

and the bumps are from grains being pushed

to the surface during firing.

‘All four of these ‘imperfections’ are in fact indicative of authentic zisha. When found together they indicate a very high likelihood that the clay is authentic pure zisha (not mixed with non-zisha clay). Since these characteristics are very difficult to fake, they are used as a guide to evaluate the authenticity of Yixing teapots.’

There are so many conflicting opinions of how

to determine how genuine a ‘genuine’

Yixing teapot is.

According to one ‘expert’ no teapot made

after 1980s should be called Yixing because

the Chinese Government stopped the mining

of the specific clay at this time that makes Yixing

teapots Yixing teapots.

But this same person gives websites to go

to buy vintage and new ‘authentic’ teapots

so I can’t work that one out.

They also state that no authentic teapot

is without a seal mark underneath as

the government bought in some

regulation in more recent times

(I think) that makes this a requirement.

But surely in decades and centuries

previous to this regulation this was

not necessarily the case?

CONDITION

In very good vintage condition

with a few signs of age or use.

I can see nothing to report except perhaps

a shaving off the surface clay from the edge

of the flange of the lid but not photographable

and may have left workshop this way.

Minor, minor, minor, nothing to worry about

in my opinion.

There will be the odd surface mark

from being handled over the

years but no scratches.

Has the anomalies in the clay that

apparently is crucial for it be a genuine

Yixing teapot -

i.e. tiny white and black spots,

holes and bumps (see above).

It doesn’t look to have been used

to me as there is no staining

inside but once again I am not

an expert on these teapots.

DIMENSIONS

It measures approximately:

19.5cm (7 5/8") long

8.5cm (3 3/8") high

11.7cm (4 5/8") wide

cm (") deep

Weight is: 444 grams

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kollectik1

(Kollectik Pty. Ltd.)

has been trading successfully on eBay

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which has now sadly closed as our old building was

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