Description
Description: Chinese Yixing teapot of very rare shape. It is actually a kettle with a sort of inner chimney, which function is to convey heat through it, thus shortening heating time. It is called hearted kettle.
In the late Qing, the literati would frequently carry their tea sets into the mountains, to brew tea on high vistas. Miniaturization, which was already in vogue, became increasingly sought after as tea increased in price due primarily to increases in quality and demand, and many quite small tea pots and tea kettles were made for a “gongfu tea” culture centered around Chaozhou. This teapot is one of such pots, a miniaturized Chaozhou hearted kettle made for easy transport and fast heating of water in the Chaozhou gongfu ceremony. The reference piece for hearted kettles is seen in the penultimate picture: a Zisha (a specific Yixing clay) late Qing hearted kettle, one of the only known whole pieces; in possession of the Tea Institute at Penn State. The last picture, of the tea ceremony table set, from the said Institute, shows it placed on the brazier. Our kettle could be Yixing, but more likely made of Shantou clay. Yixing versions are rarer than Shantou because they made the kettles very thin, but the majority of hearted kettles were Shantou and all of them are quite rare. This particular shape is called 穿心銚/ Chuān xīn diào, because the heat is conveyed through the heart, the middle of the kettle. It’s like having a chimney in the middle of the kettle. This increases the surface that is in contact with the hot air rising from the charcoal and heats the water faster than with a flat bottom. It’s also a shape that only a very skilled potter could make.
It is worth to note that hearted kettles are known since at least Liao dynasty, as seen by the example shown in the first picture that follows those of our kettle, taken from page 660 of “LIAO CERAMICS BETWEEN 907 AD AND 1125 AD IN NORTHERN CHINA”, a doctorate thesis by Jing Lu, at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, 2008.
Dating: 18th/19th century
Size: 13.3 cm from handle to spout
Provenance: Antiquarian market
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