Among the collections of Tongxinshe Teahouse, there is a treasure with a story of time – a 20cc all-handmade Zhu Ni teapot. Now, we have found a "soulmate" for it: a 30cc hand-painted landscape cup from Jingdezhen. The two complement each other perfectly in capacity, making them just right for one person to brew and enjoy tea, together composing the elegance of a tea table, and becoming the focus of many tea lovers and collectors.
This teapot is made of Huanglongshan Zhu Ni clay. As the "gold" among purple clay materials, Huanglongshan Zhu Ni is famous for its fine and温润 texture and unique air permeability. After years of infiltration, it shows a more simple and unsophisticated charm. The craftsman shaped it with all-handmade techniques, and every inch of the curve embodies the ingenuity of the fingertips. The small and delicate teapot body shows the ultimate pursuit of details everywhere. The teapot body adopts a single-hole design. To meet the needs of daily tea brewing, we specially added a custom filter, which not only retains the original simple style of the teapot but also makes the tea soup flow smoothly, allowing every drop of tea to fully show the true flavor of the tea. Whether brewing the mellow oolong or the fresh green tea, this small teapot can handle it calmly, letting tea lovers feel the integration of tea and utensils in a small space.
The matching Jingdezhen landscape cup is also made by craftsmen. The 30cc capacity echoes the teapot body cleverly, which will not dilute the aroma of the tea soup due to the too large cup, and allows the drinker to just catch the warmth of a pot of tea when raising the cup. The cup body is painted with landscape pictures by hand, with delicate and flexible brushstrokes, such as distant mountains with light clouds or nearby waters with mist, condensing the distant artistic conception of Jiangnan landscapes on the cup wall. The unique porcelain of Jingdezhen is as smooth as jade. After the tea soup is poured into the cup, it can not only set off the beauty of the tea color but also let the tea fragrance spread slowly in the cup, echoing with the taste in the teapot, making the tea-tasting process a double enjoyment of vision and taste.
Talking about the origin of this Zhu Ni teapot, it adds a bit of legend. In 2005, we encountered this teapot by chance from a Taiwanese collector, fell in love with it at first sight, and included it in the collection of Tongxinshe. Now, it has stood quietly in the teahouse for more than 20 years, witnessing countless tea parties, and also precipitating the warm luster given by time. Although this landscape cup has not been in the collection as long as the teapot, it has become an excellent partner for drinking alone because of its consistent temperament and suitable capacity with the teapot body.
Such small but exquisitely crafted and precious all-handmade Zhu Ni teapots and Jingdezhen landscape cups are rare even online. They are not only practical tea-making tools but also can meet the elegant needs of drinking alone, and are the carriers of tea memories, suitable for those who truly understand tea and love utensils to collect. Tongxinshe Teahouse is willing to deliver this long-precipitated elegance to the bosom friends who know how to appreciate it, letting this delicate beauty continue to flow in the new time.