Teapot and Cover: Handmade Stoneware from China Essay

Teapot and Cover: Handmade Stoneware from China
A Material Biography
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The Teapot and Cover is one of the fascinating artifacts displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum. It is described as handmade stoneware from Yixing Xian, Jiangsu Province, China. It is made circa 1867-1923 AD during the Qing dynasty. It has a dimension of 6.8 x 18.3 x 13.4 centimeters. The artifact is golden in color and has an interesting form. It has an irregular round body, a creative lid and handle, and a short spout. The history of tea, particularly leaf tea, provides the impetus for the creation of teapots. On the other hand, its form isn’t quite as original and has taken shape from the spouted vessels that have been around in China for thousands of years. The emperors during the dynasty it is believed to be made are also notable and might have influenced the design and medium of this artifact. Finally, the distribution or export of Chinese teapots is an important reason of its preservation and influence.
The Tea and the Teacup
According to Cambridge University Press (2020), a teapot is defined as a container with a handle and a spout for making and serving tea. Hence, to understand the creation of teapots, such as the artifact Teapot and Cover, it is imperative to review the history of tea.
Camellia sinensis, or commonly known as tea tree, is an evergreen small tree whose leaves are used to make tea. All teas – white, yellow, green, oolong, black and fermented – come from the same tree; except herbal teas (Tkalec, 2017).
The oldest tea tree is found in Jinxiu Village, Yunnan Province, China. It is famously known as the Jinxiu Tea King and estimated to be more than 3000 years old. It is also believed that this is the largest ancient tea tree in the world (Travelife Magazine, 2020).
It is believed that tea was discovered over 5000 years ago by Emperor Shennong, one of the three god-kings that ruled prehistoric China. Emperor Shennong is considered to have taught the Chinese the practice of agriculture, the use of herbal drugs, the application of plant-based medicine, and acupuncture, and today, remains the patron deity of farmers and traditional Chinese medicine experts. The story of tea says that Emperor Shennong was sitting under a tree when the leaves from the tree fell into the vessel where his servant was boiling drinking water. It is said that the water turned brown, making the new liquid interesting; hence out of curiosity, the emperor tried it and found it refreshing (Strom, 2017).
However, this story remains a legend; whereas in reality, it is not until the Tang (618 -907 AD) dynasty that drinking tea became a national custom and the earliest archeological record about tea, written circa 760 AD, is found in Lu Yu’s The Book of Tea. Lu Yu is a writer, who recognized tea as a work of art. He discusses in his book where tea is found and produced, how to identify and choose it, and what is the best way of preparing it (Pratt, 2007).
The history of tea in China may be explained through its three forms, with phases of brewing techniques – boiling, whipping, and steeping – that are partly overlapping. Firstly, there is the cake tea or brick tea. Compressing the thoroughly dried and ground tea leaves in different shaped molds to create a brick out of them is an ancient method. To brew this tea, the brick is first roasted over fire before being crushed and added to boiling water. Secondly, there is the powdered tea. During the Song (960-1279 AD) dynasty, tea leaves are steamed first then dried and ground into a fine powder. To prepare this tea, the powder is whipped in a bowl while pouring boiling water. And thirdly, there is the leaf tea. During the Ming (1368-1644 AD) dynasty, leaf tea emerges because cake teas went out of production. To brew leaf tea, boiling water is poured over the leaves placed in a vessel that allows the steeping of tea. It is believed that the development of this technique brought significant changes to tea ware (Ceresca, 2008).
While cake tea was boiled in cauldrons, ladled into wide bowls and served, and powdered tea was sip directly from the deep and wide bowl it was whipped in, leaf tea necessitates a teapot. However, according to Pratt (1993), “The teapot has not always been the undisputed lord of the tea service; historically the teacup comes first.”
The precursor to a teapot is a gaiwan, created during the Ming dynasty. It has three pieces: a saucer, a small cup with a flared lip, and a lid for the cup. The saucer holds the hot cup to be brought to the mouth, while the lid holds back the leaves while drinking (The Tea Detective, 2011).
The Spouted Vessel and the Chinese Stoneware
Before teapots exist, teapot-like containers, such as ewers and spouted vessels, were already around in China for thousands of years. Hence, the shape of a teapot isn’t quite as unprecedented.
Spouted vessels called gong looked much like a sauce server. It has a large spout extending from one end to the handle at the other end. The gong was used to serve wine and was produced during the Shang (circa 1600-1046 BC) and early Zhou (1046–256 BC) dynasties. Moreover, it is during the Shang dynasty that stoneware originated. Stoneware is clay that has been heated at high temperature until vitrified or glass-like. In China, the difference between stoneware and porcelain, another vitrified ceramic, is that the latter is resonant when struck. Also, it is believed that the origin of dragon kiln is linked with the introduction of stoneware. This is an oven that can achieve very high temperature necessary to make high-fired ceramics, such as stoneware and porcelain (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.).
The First Teapot
In Lu Yu’s The Book of Tea, he identified 24 items in the tea paraphernalia, namely: stove, bamboo basket, coal breaker, fire-clip, boiler, stand, paper bag, tea roller and tea dust cleaner, tea basket, ze (used to measure tea), water container, filter, gourd ladle, bamboo clip, salt stand, holding jar, bowls, ben (storage container for the bowls), zha (brush to wash the vessels), water collector, dreg collector, cloth, tea set stand, and big basket. However, during the Ming dynasty, tea paraphernalia was slowly abandoned and attention was mainly focused to teapots. The first teapot was invented by Gong Chun, a monk’s assistant. This teapot was called zisha, meaning purple sand. It was made of special clay that absorbs easily; hence it was believed that a seasoned zisha teapot is full of aroma and flavor of a tea. This emerged in the town of Yixing, which later would be known as the capital of teapots (Wang, 2000).
In the beginning, Yixing teapots were not decorated, but rather simple. Then, symbolism and poetry came to the forefront. One of the distinguished artisans in the Ming dynasty was Shi Dabin. His way of mud preparation, shapes techniqu...