Hi everybody,
Certainly one of you has the answer. Recently there were threads about Yixing pots and that made me remember of the cousin pot of my little Yixing (they are both "peach" pots in dark clay). I see it everyday on my shelf, but had forgotten its existence. The stamp is broken, that could be written "yixing", it makes a metallic ring, well that's not the question, it can give a hint. I looked for such a pot when I was traveling in China a few years ago because I had seen plain overpriced ones with the same system in Japanese department stores and was curious. I've eventually found one I liked in the bazar in Xian, in an "antique shop". I've got it for a song and it's surprising I could take it back home in one piece.
I still don't know how it is supposed to be used. As written in the title, there is no lid, the top is not opened by any hole, the spout is normal. The pot is twice as high and as large as a gong fu pot, thicker walls, so the inside seem to have the same volume. The hole to pour the water is under the pot, so you turn it to fill it, then you turn it back and the water stays inside. To empty it, you pour by the spout but half of the water stays inside. Then what's the trick ? Has it a name ? Is it a teapot ?Where/how do you put/take away the tea ? What sort ?
In Japan, I see some once in a blue moon and always ask information, they never know anything about it, they say it's for decoration, most shopkeepers had not even seen there was a hole under. In China, in every shop that had some,they said it was an old model ("antiques" are always presented as at least 400 year old) and everybody has forgotten how to use it. The seller told me : "It probably works without tea". That'd certainly save me from ruin. For the Chinese people that saw it, I'm a fool to buy such a strange thing. I don't mind if I can't use it, but at least, I'd like to know what it is.
Kuri