"The pearls and jadeites on the earth are as good as the pills on the earth." The teapot can not only give people a sense of enjoyment, but also bring a broad investment space due to the lack of raw materials and the unique performance of the finished products. Choosing and collecting a teapot with both practicality and artistry should be considered from the following six words: mud, shape, workmanship, style, merit and name.
Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, teapots have gradually become popular in China, and Yixing teapot has become the main instrument for drinking tea because of its practical advantages of "neither grabbing incense nor smelling cooked soup" (A Long History of Wen Zhenheng). Zisha pot not only has the practical value of making tea and cooking incense, but also has the value of playing and collecting because of its special materials, exquisite craftsmanship, attractive appearance and euphemistic connotation. Since the Ming Dynasty, the teapot has always been the object of collection.
Choosing and collecting a teapot that is both practical and artistic needs to be considered from the following six words: mud, shape, workmanship, style, merit and name.
plaster
"Mud" is the fundamental value of teapot, and teapot made of Yixing purple sand has practical, investment and collection value.
The teapot has a good taste-preserving function, and the tea leaves do not lose their original flavor; Old tea doesn't go bad, and the more it is in summer, the more it can't afford greasy fur; It can withstand sudden changes in temperature. These characteristics are all due to the double pore structure of purple clay, while other clays do not. This structure enables the teapot to make more fragrant tea than teapots made of other materials, and at the same time, it can preserve the tea for a long time without deterioration. In China, this kind of double-porosity purple clay can only be mined in Dingshan, Yixing. So in China, purple mud is unique, and pots made of unique mud are of course irreplaceable.
In addition to the structural differences, pure purple sand mud also gives people sensory enjoyment because of its "not bright color, not greasy quality" characteristics; At the same time, its raw ore contains a large number of trace elements needed by human body, and at the same time provides tea for human body. The biggest difference with other tea-making tools is that after a period of water nourishment, the teapot can show a state of "purple jade outside, blue clouds inside" (Long Wen's Tea Corner). Purple sand is known as purple jade sands, and its dim light makes tea tasters' feelings for the teapot not "intoxicated".
It is precisely because of people's love for teapot that purple sand has been mined for hundreds of years, making the mineral deposits of purple sand less and less. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the best red mud, Zhu Mud, had disappeared. The large-scale exploitation of modern industrialization has accelerated the disappearance of purple sand mud, a non-renewable resource. Purple sand mud is decreasing, and the best mud in purple sand mud, such as "bottom soap" mud, is decreasing faster because its exploitation and use are greater than other kinds of mud. According to people in the purple sand industry, China purple sand has faced the embarrassing situation that the original purple sand ore has been reduced in production and disappeared. Yixing's purple sand layer can only provide 50 years of raw ore mining at most. Later, people can only look for the raw purple sand mine in memory, and the teapot made of pure purple sand mud will gradually decrease in the world due to the inevitable consumption in use and preservation. Therefore, it is of great investment or collection significance to set foot in the teapot market made of pure purple sand.
shape
The "shape" of the teapot is ever-changing, because the teapot with investment and collection value is handmade. The teapot not only gathers the creative wisdom and hard work of craftsmen, but also reflects the understanding and expectation of craftsmen for the teapot. Although the teapot is "square and round", as an indispensable part of China tea culture, the artistic conception pursued by the teapot should be consistent with the artistic conception of "pure and white, indifferent and elegant, detached and refined" pursued by the tea ceremony, so that the teapot with the "Gu Zhuo charm" shape can be accepted by China traditional culture. According to the law that "the more fashionable, the easier it is to be eliminated, and the more traditional it is to spread", the simple and traditional teapot has more collection significance and appreciation space than the strange teapot.
worker
"Work" is the soul of the value of teapot. The making of a pot has to go through dozens or hundreds of processes. Only by careful craftsmanship can the pots properly reflect the warmth of purple clay, have a good foundation for modeling, and have a basis for comparing the "styles" and "merits" of different purple clay pots. In addition to the flow, handle, button, cover, shoulder, abdomen and circle, the transition of point, line and surface of a good teapot must be clearly explained and smooth. On the whole, the teapot has a good shape and no uncomfortable feeling; In detail, the teapot should be straight when it should be straight, curved when it should be bent, used when it should be used, and hairy when it should be hairy, which is a bit fuzzy. Well-made teapot can stimulate people's high emotions, or people's temperament is restrained and implicit, which not only expresses the author's thoughts, but also differs from other pots in verve, spirit and realm.
fund
"Width" refers to poems, paintings, seals, etc. engraved on the teapot, and is also included in the value of the teapot. Good carving, even by celebrities, will greatly enhance the artistry and collectibility of teapot. A pot merchant in Yixing once asked a famous artist to engrave the word "tea" on a pot, and the value of this pot is incomparable to that of similar pots.
success
Another value of teapot is reflected in the use of teapot. The function of teapot is mainly manifested in four aspects: moderate capacity, appropriate height, tight cover and smooth water outlet. To some extent, a teapot with good merit is more valuable than a teapot with poor merit.
Generally speaking, careful "workmanship" can make teapot have better "workmanship" function. However, some purple sand artists don't drink tea themselves, so they don't know much about making tea in purple sand pots, and they are not clear about the differences in workmanship details required for different teas. Therefore, even the best "power" and "strength" of teapot can't well reflect the characteristics of different teas, which makes tea tasting dull. Of course, the value of such teapot will not be very high.
name
The name of teapot refers to the author of teapot, and the author's fame constitutes the added value of teapot. Pots made by famous artists are more expensive than those sold by ordinary craftsmen. A stone ladle of the late Zisha master Gu Jingzhou was auctioned for 900,000 yuan. Therefore, when investing in the collection of teapot, it is very necessary to consider the reputation of the people who make teapot. However, this also requires investors to have the ability to "know the truth". The more famous people are, the easier it is to be counterfeited. Once the fake famous pot is dismantled, it becomes worthless. Only when you are familiar with the teapot and the pot maker, it is safe to invest in famous pots.
For teapot lovers who are not well-off, they can also pay attention to and explore those pot makers who are not well-known but have their own unique pot-making style with solid materials and fine workmanship. This kind of person is like a "dark horse". When his fame and reputation advance by leaps and bounds, the added value of his pot will definitely bring satisfactory returns to investors.