Jingdezhen Porcelain Teaware
Jingdezhen porcelain teaware combines functional tea forms with a long ceramic tradition. This collection includes blue-and-white gaiwans, tea cups, tasting cups and a gongfu tea tray decorated with white magnolia, Baoxiang flowers, scrolling lotus, the Three Friends of Winter and other symbolic motifs. Several pieces are hand-painted, while others draw on historic forms such as the Ya Shou cup. The collection is intended for daily brewing and tasting, not display alone. Choose a coordinated series for a unified tea table, or select an individual piece by shape, motif and use.
One color enters the flame, thousand hues emerge.
“Into the kiln one color, out of the kiln a myriad of colors.”
This ancient Chinese proverb is often used to describe the magic of kiln-fired ceramics.
Before firing, the cobalt oxide painted on the raw clay body
looks a flat, quiet gray—nothing like the deep,
vibrant blue you see in the final cup.
Only when the kiln reaches over 1300°C,
and the flame’s atmosphere shifts from oxygen-rich to oxygen-starved,
does the magic happen: the gray blooms into that celebrated blue,
with misty edges, pooling depths, and brushstrokes suddenly alive.
The exact hue and softness of this blue depend on the kiln’s temperature,
the thickness of the glaze, and where the piece sits inside the kiln.
No two pieces, even from the same batch, come out identically blue.
Clay Body
Painted Unfired
Fully Fired
‘Lion and Brocade Ball’ Gaiwan
yellow ground and underglaze blue decoration
