Trustworthy Online Yixing Teapot Vendors?

Hi Tess. I know you are already aware of Jing's, but I just wanted to give another vote for them. I got a very nice yixing from them recently and I'm really happy with it. They sell good midrange stuff. Hou De seems to be more targeted towards real collectors. If you are just starting out, I would go a little cheaper.

The mass-produced > Hello again, all, and thanks for that warm welcome!

I've been collecting and using Yixing for a number of years, and I have never bought one online. Even though I live in Pittsburgh, where there is no hope of cultural diversity or interest, I can find four places to buy decent Yixing... so I would think just about anyone should. In one local mall during Christmas time we have a temporary Chinese furniture/import store that comes in, and they actually carry some of the best Yixing I've seen and at fair prices... which is pretty impressive. I've now become friends with the one owner and she has explained that she brings back better quality Yixing and prices them fairly to let people see and own proper quality Yixing. She detests the junk and fake Yixing she sees. That is a rarity though, and I feel fortunate to deal with her.

There is a small coffee shop (Nicholas Coffee) in Pittsburgh, they have a website

(but not anywhere near indicative of their actual Yixing selection, it may be worth calling them though if you know what you want), that has just started selling Yixing. mid to lower quality but very low prices, I've bought a few select pieces from him.

I know there is a website called Yixing.com and one that has the word "fun" in the title (if you google "Yixing" it is one of the top returned). Just understand that without seeing and touching it first, you should expect it to be lower quality and just be happy when it is not. My limit would be $30-40 for a teapot bought online without some verification of authenticity and quality.

Always properly season your pot before using it, even a cheaper one.

- Dominic

Another odd place to look for Yixing is a large metro area art museum. I first got mine over ten years ago authenicated by the curator from an invoice. Everytime I go back they still have a selection around $50. The trick I've learned is ask to buy two of the same. If they bring out the second then you know it is a factory mold. I've seen plenty of these perfectly acceptable molds from Yixing but don't pay over $25. If I'm paying for a mold it better at least have a chop mark with a ringing lid. The problem online you can't inspect before buying. Yixing is light,thin and resonate. Glazing is an absolute no-no. Check Google for previous excellent posts on Yixing.

Jim

Dom> I've been collecting and using Yixing for a number of years, and I have

...I wack but I'm not a butcher...

Hi Tess, I don't think I can contribute much except recommending the reputable ones you mentioned. One more I can mention is redblossomtea.com which have some selection of teapots too. They have a physical store in San Fransisco chinatown. I went there last month and found teapots are about average to good quality.

(The Direct Route) A while ago, I tried to buy two teapots from a part-time teaport in China directly. The difficult part was to send money to him and he didn't want to risk breaking his pots as his margin was probably thin. So I ended up asking a traveling friend to hand carry them back to the US for me instead. The teapots are suprisingly in good quality for about $40USD each and I wanted more. So I kept talking to him and he became a friend of mine. Recently, he is interested in shipping a set of teapots over here to see if I can sell them out for him. But this is just a prelimary and we still have to find out the shipping in larger quantility and import duty issue. If this deal can really work out, you may have one more choice of great yixing teapots. :)

Btw, his pots range from $30 to $400 USD, and I bought the lowend ones. And this is not an advertisement, but I just want to share my experience/story to people who are interested in mid-high end yixing teapots in the US.

~goldfish

Tess wrote:

Hey all,

When talking about collecting teapots, I thought I could give some inputs on Yixing teapots as I spend most of my days with pu erh and yixing teapot collectors who have done that for many decades.

Nowadays, teapots collecting can be serparated into two major ways:

- Beautifully made and/or new designed by new generation potters with everything in perfect balance and proportion. In this case, the appearance is the most important thing.

- Good quality and/or aged clay teapots that were made from the Yixing teapot factories, or teapots that are made by using the same type of clays from the factories but with some "unknown" potters/workshops that were retired from the factories. In this case, teapots could be a little bit "twisty" or even leaking a bit from the lid etc. But they can brew a good cup of tea and increase the flavor of the tea.

- There is the third one, antique teapots. For this one, you need a very good eye and need to know the yixing teapot history and clay very well. Because there are plenty of fake antique teapots on the market and even in reputable auctions. They can have any type of seals under/inside/on anywhere of the teapot to shout: I am a real piece! However, by knowing the way of making, the size of the works of the period, the texture and the COLOR of the works, one can probably point out some problems from a lot of "antiques".

Most of the time, the first case will cost a fortune, for those from the potters that has different ranges of certified grading and/or from a famous familly. However, these beautiful works are not neccesory made of good quality clay. The second case is really hard to find but surprisely the price is a lot more fair than the first case.

Regarding "antique" and aged teapots, beware. Those cannot be found on the market but only via collectors network. Just to give an idea, a mid 1980's Yixing teapot factory pot, that was not made by a famous maker at that time can go for $565.00 (price for friend) and you will only get those if you know someone who has this type of piece and if he is willing to sell it!

Jing

Hi goldfish,

Do we get to know who this vendor is? Does he have a web site? Are there pictures to look at? Or perhaps this is privileged information.

Best, Michael

And, to add to what s/he says, you can all thank the Taiwanese and Hong Kongers for the price structure. About 10-15 years ago, many Taiwanese business guys came over and bought up a huge supply of good clay and good pots. The mainland factories started to produce a huge amount of pots to keep up with market and basically flooded themselves out. You are seeing this now also with Pu'er.

I just hope the Pu'er market fares better than what happened to the zisha clay market.

snipped-for-privacy@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com8/14/06

10: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

My understanding is that much of the best clay has been mined out, so the clays of today, being inferior, are worth less; this is not to say that prices reflect this. Is any of this true? I seriously wonder whether equally good clays are available today. Michael