A cup of clear tea holds the flavors of the four seasons. The fragrance of tea is subtle, and the passage of time is silent. As seasons change, a single leaf opens the door to time. Drinking a cup of favorite tea in winter is like meeting an old friend; even without words, just sitting together feels comfortable and secure. Among the many tea utensils on the tea table, only silver pots and cups can reflect the moonlight.
It is like plucking the bright moon from the sky, pouring the gentle moonlight and the richness of autumn into the tea cup, sipping it into the heart. Literati and poets all love silver pots, which are inherently noble, clean, and elegant, giving a comfortable and pleasant feeling. Tea connoisseurs have long discovered the subtlety of silver pots that do not harm the aroma of tea. Pure and soft silver pots can boil ‘silk-like water’, which can clarify the tea, making it as soft as silk and satin. Hence, the saying goes: ‘To boil water, silver pots are precious; to brew tea, silver pots are revered.’ No wonder, after comparing countless tea utensils, Lu Yu ultimately revered the silver pot as the ‘ultimate purity’, treating it as the ‘white moonlight’ in his heart. Silver pots used to be exclusive to the nobility and officials, but now they are not affordable in the market. Many people love silver pots, but they are deterred by the high prices. A friend who specializes in collecting silver pots recommended a daily-use silver pot to the shopkeeper – the Porcelain Body Enamel Full Flower Gilded Silver Pot. At first glance, it was stunning. The Porcelain Body Enamel Full Flower Gilded Silver Pot is meticulously crafted by hand, with the body using the ‘intangible cultural heritage’ of the royal court’s unique skills, blooming flowers and entwined branches painted all over the pot, with chiseling and clear, elegant colors, clusters of flowers, symbolizing auspiciousness! As the poem says: ‘The color carries the color of the long river, the light floats with the full moonlight. ‘ Porcelain body enamel is the most distinctive among the porcelain used by the Qing Dynasty royal family, and the most exquisite among the colored porcelains on glaze. Enamel, also known as ‘Folang’, ‘Folang’, ‘Fa Lan’, is a type of vitrified substance. It mainly uses feldspar and quartz as raw materials, adding soda ash, borax, etc., as fluxes. Then, add oxides of copper, cobalt, iron, etc., as colorants. After crushing, mixing, calcination, and melting, pour it into water to cool quickly to get the enamel block, and then grind it fine to get enamel powder. After mixing the enamel powder, apply it to the porcelain body, which is called porcelain body enamel. The production process of porcelain body enamel uses glaze water mixed with natural minerals. First, outline the lines, and after the basic shape is formed, then color the enamel according to different color blocks, layer by layer, with the collision and splicing of color blocks forming different colors. Then, after the glaze surface is dry, fire the kiln to make the enamel color, forming a drop-like state. Because of its unique multi-color and complex lines, color filling, each link needs to be meticulous, especially testing the craftsman. If a link goes wrong, it will lead to the failure of the entire piece of porcelain, which is a substandard product.This teapot can be purchased for just over a hundred yuan. It can be regarded as an alternative to pure silver teapots and looks quite elegant when placed on a tea mat. Click on the image below to buy.
This filigree full-flower silver-plated tea set is the work of Master Zheng Yonghuang, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Chinese ceramic art. Master Zheng is a native of Dehua, the porcelain capital. He comes from a porcelain family. As an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Chinese ceramic art, he has won numerous awards in various major awards in the field of Chinese ceramics. He is also a member of the China Ceramic Art Development Center. He creates many works close to life, which are deeply loved by everyone. A friend of the shopkeeper has dozens of silver teapots in his collection at home, but he only loves to use this one in daily life. The porcelain-body painted enamel full-flower silver-plated tea set represents a transformation from clay to a beautiful utensil. In ancient times, there was the phoenix nirvana, rising from the ashes. Today, craftsmen fire the porcelain five times in and out of the kiln to obtain a fine product. Dehua kaolin porcelain clay is specially selected for bisque firing. Dehua has rich reserves of porcelain clay ore, with low contents of impurities such as iron and titanium, and good quality. The embryo is based on pottery art, with a compact texture, as smooth as mutton fat, smooth lines, and a light posture. Compared with ordinary porcelain, there is an additional step of bisque firing. The tea set made of it can fully stimulate the tea fragrance without absorbing the fragrance or taste, and can help enhance the tea fragrance well. In Dehua, the porcelain capital, folk craftsmen have magical hands to shape ordinary clay ore into various forms. It is fired in the kiln once for shaping bisque firing. The ancient silver-plating technique covers 999 fine silver on the Dehua porcelain teapot, just like a gentle and refined gentleman. Holding it in your hand, you will feel it is very spiritual. After that, the embryo is trimmed, washed, and glazed, and then fired in the kiln for the second time for glaze firing. Glaze firing is a very important link in determining the quality of the ceramic surface. It needs to be fired at a high temperature of 1380 degrees Celsius for up to 12 hours. After coming out of the kiln, defective products are selected and excluded, and then the first application of silver paste is carried out. This is the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage skills, and great attention is paid to the craftsman’s techniques. The first application is called rough paste, and then it is fired in the kiln for the third time to bake the silver. After the first silver plating, the silver needs to be polished again, and then the silver paste is applied twice more to make the silver surface more delicate. The second application is called fine powder, and then it is fired in the kiln for the fourth time to finalize the shape of the silver-plated utensil. Click on the image below to buy. After the silverware is completed, colors need to be added to the ceramic. The pattern is outlined with gold wire, and then color filling is done inside the pattern, step by step, stroke by stroke, to form a full-color pattern, which especially tests the painting skills of the master craftsman and takes a lot of time and energy. After the pattern colors dry, it is fired in the kiln for the last time. After coming out of the kiln, the porcelain is selected and polished, which is quite cumbersome and elaborate! With a half-light and half-shadow, bright, flexible but not flamboyant luster, it is like the bright moon at night. Such a pure-as-snow and extremely elegant silver-plated teapot has become the “white moonlight” in the hearts of every tea lover. Although the silver teapot in front of you is no different from the traditional hand-hammered silver teapot, it combines the beauty of silverware and porcelain.The teapot lid is adorned with blooming flowers and fluttering brocade butterflies. Amidst the cluster, a silver knob stands upright. The contrast between the static and the dynamic, the simple and the delicate, makes them complement each other perfectly.
When you look at it, it shines like a silver pot. When you tap it, it produces a clear and melodious sound like porcelain. Those who love porcelain cannot overlook Dehua. Dehua white porcelain can create countless shapes, but it is rare to see such a porcelain teapot imitating a silver pot. It takes porcelain as its framework and silver as its essence. The craftsmanship involved is more complex than that of ordinary porcelain. A cup, a tea bowl, and a tea ceremony can soothe the mind and bring calmness and poise. Whether it is amidst mountains and valleys or in a corner of a secluded courtyard, you can enjoy a perfect tea gathering.
