Chinese Yixing Clay Teapot. Inscribed with symbols, handle wrapped.

Size: 7 X 3 1/2 X 4 1/4 in.

#5404 .

Yixing is a type of clay from the region near the city of Yixing in Jiangsu Province, China, used in pottery since the Song dynasty (960-1279 AD). Red or brown in color, Yixing is unique because it is so fine and dense in its porousness, retaining what it absorbs better than other ceramics, which allows the vessel to give back aroma to a brewed tea. The deeper the color, the higher the concentration of iron in the clay. Early pots were designed for use while traveling during the Ming Dynasty. It was not until the mid-Qing Dynasty (18th Century) that tea connoisseurs started to use the pot at home and artisans began to form them into different shapes and sizes. By the late 17th Century Yixing teapots were imported to the Netherlands along with China tea, and in 1690 the Elers brothers, originally from Delft, established redware production in Staffordshire, England using slipcasting. The imitation of red stoneware thus became a crucial stage in the development of European porcelain. Due to the relative scarcity of good Yixing clay and the ever increasing demand for Yixing stoneware, it is now produced in very limited quantities, distributed among Chinese teapot makers based on their ranks.