Description
 
Yixing Zisha Fault Clay Idyll Dragon Pearl Teapot 
 
This teapot is fully handmade using zisha fault clay ( 段泥 ). The surface features carries engraving that includes a bird resting on a branch with a pair of fish in a pond which both symbolise the energy of spring. There is a poem decribing the scene.
 
Fault clay is a symbiotic ore of Benshan green clay and purple clay. The mountain green mud and purple mud are the original ore of zisha. The meaning of symbiosis is naturally formed, and the nature of the two muds is consistent. The high quality of the segment clay teapot is that the purple clay particles are not very obvious. Because the sediment content of fault clay pot is particularly high, the pore structure is larger than other mud materials, so it is particularly easy to adsorb the color of the tea and this allows fault clay pot to absorb the impure odour of aged teas.
 
This teapot holds approximately 200ml (+/- 5ml) and features a flat filter and tight-fitting lid. The walls of this teapot are relatively thin, but it allows for a very stable and comfortable hand feel that has to be experienced to fully appreciate. It also includes a certificate from the artist indicating the artist’s name, teapot shape and clay composition.
 
Zisha (‘purple sand’) describes the reddish-brown color of the sedimentary soil which settled in ancient lakes and is now buried deep underground. The clay is compressed under heavy sedimentary rock formations throughout the Yixing region, southwest of Shanghai, in China’s Jiangsu province. Huanglong Mountain near Dingshu township has been the source of high quality purple clay ore for centuries. The mountain itself is rather ordinary – neither grand or pretty – but it is 350 million years old.
These teapots are prized because their unglazed surfaces absorb traces of the beverage and develop a patina, which enhances the taste, color and aroma of fine tea.