Brooklyn Treasures - Pt.2

Back in Brooklyn with Kingston, I was admiring his teapots and enjoying some puer. He keeps most of his collection in his tearoom but there's a more precious selection he stores in his home. When we had enough tea, we went usptairs to see the pieces he keeps closest to his heart. Here's a quick look at just some of the antiques he's collected over time. Sadly the photos can't convey the variety of textures and weight that are a part of appreciating these works of art.

An aged yellow clay (duan-ni) teapot can develop a rich hue and natural glow from years of use. Here's a great example of teapot with a traditional overhead handle.

A trio of small, well crafted gongfu teapots.

But Kingston had even smaller ones to show me:

I put my IPhone down for size reference. Kingston told me that the tiniest one is actually hand made and not from a mold. The cups are also exquisite miniatures but they lose a sense of proportion next to the pot.

An antique yixing clay double boiler for cooking ginseng. Nowadays, you can purchase modern, electric cookers lined with Yixing clay.

At first glance these teapots look like they're made from the yellow yixing clay but they are actually made from the rarer white clay. The one in the background is newer and had a slight greenish-yellow tint. Because of it's shape and hue it resembled a ripe honeydew.

Two lavishly glazed teapots with very different depictions of butterflies flitting among flowers.

A set of Song Dynasty wine cups. The only other cups I've seen of this size belong to Winnie. You can see them on an old post about Song Dynasty ceramics. Kingston explained how the rich, ebony color I was looking at was actually a very thick and translucent dark-mahogany glaze. He shined an intense light into the cup's interior to reveal its secret layers.

It looked like a glimmer of gold treasure shining from the depths of the darkest cavern.
I was getting a little overwhelmed with all the pretty things filling up my vision and Kingston's wealth of information but he still had more to share...

till next time!

A Little Peek

Now that our teapot section is up on our website I've been receiving questions from people eager to see what other Yixing teapots we'll be selling. Since we're not as fast at posting new products as some would like, I've decided a quick preview of what's to come is the least our clients deserve. And I had to catalogue them anyway...

These are just some of what we'll be carrying in the future and we want to share a good mix of colors and styles. All of these pots were picked by Winnie or Michael and they have been part of the collection and the backdrop of Tea Gallery life for years. Another reason for the delay is Winne's attachment to her pots and she'll vacillate from selling to keeping a pot over the course of a few days. I understand the sentimental values she has for her pots but I've had a heck of a time keeping track of what can get sold and what can't.

I think she'd keep them all if she could but we really need to make room for some of the other teapots she found!

Well, it's back to work for me and these teapots but I hope this little look satisfied some curiosities...

Post Holiday Glow

With most of the holiday season behind us, I'm looking forward to spending the new year with some new teapots I picked up in our travels. Here are a few that found their way home with me:

The sweet yellow speckles and oval shape reminded me of a bird's egg turned into a teapot. It's about the size of chicken's egg too.

The red clay and attention to detail on this tree stump pot make it appear timeless. Winnie owns a similar version done by the same artisan.

Here's a simple geometric shape, unadorned with a lovely satin sheen.

The restrained bamboo theme in an uncommon color attracted me to this particular pot in a room full of Yixing pots.

I also picked up some new porcelain

as well as some old porcelain.

Of course I brought back tea, plenty of tea..

Puer and roasted TiKwanYin

High mountain oolongs from Taiwan

I'm looking forward to the coming months with so much to learn and share.

Have a Happy New Year!