Now I’m wondering how many of my small collection of Yixing teapots are really Yixing ware. I think the most expensive was only $30 or $35 and most were around $25, though in my defense I bought them between ’85 & ’95, so maybe now they’d cost a little more. I know cost isn’t what determines genuineness, but I wonder if it was even possible then to buy a genuine Yixing pot for that amount? Most of them came from small local tea &/or Asian art & craft importers who all seemed genuinely honest & ethical.
They’re all well made, as far as I can tell, though a few lids are looser than I’d like. I just wish I still had the first one I ever bought. It was a graceful sort of simplified djinn’s lamp shape w/a poem calligraphed on one side. It came w/a certificate guaranteeing it had come from Yixing. When a housepainter knocked it off its shelf & broke it 12 years later I cried. I’ve been a fervent adherent of museum putty ever since ;-).
That makes me wonder, in fact: is museum putty harmful to Yixing pots?
~Hamsa
