The King of kings in world of pots

There is a teapot on display in a folk museum in Shanghai which is priceless. Even if you were to offer 200 million dollars, the owner would not sell it. When teapot makers from Yixing visit the museum, they would kneel in front of the teapot and pay their respect. Some would secretly take a photo or make some measurement hoping to make an exact duplicate of it. Others don't mind paying 20 000 dollars just to touch it. So, what sort of teapot is it? Why is everybody so mad about it?

Potter kneel in front of a pot

Paying respect to a pot?

This is a teapot made by the legendary Shao Dahen during the mid-Qing dynasty. In the County Annals of Yixing, it was written that teapots by Shao Dahen were rare and priceless as there were very few of his teapots left behind. He was considered the best potter ever lived in Yixing. Even the grandmaster Gu Jingzhou had deep respect and admiration for his works.

 

Figurine of Shao Dahen by Xu Siewtang



County Annals of Yixing

Shao Dahen's Duozhi pot

  

So who actually owns this teapot? Why is it so special?

 

There was a rumour that a certain Pan family in Yixing had in their possession a mysterious pot by Shao Dahen, passed down from 3 generations. The pot was acquired from a certain magistrate during the Qing dynasty. Xu Sihai, a navy officer, heard the news and immediately went to the Pan family to take a look. Xu was a famous collector and he was truly mad about teapots until his friends called him the teapot addict. He once spotted a Qing dynasty teapot on a roadside stall and the seller wanted 500 dollars for it (as he knew  Xu was an officer, had to be rich), unfortunately he only had 200 dollarsin his wallet. Immediately he removed a newly bought Swiss watch from his wrist and gave it to the seller. The seller was still not satisfied, he then removed a sweater which he was wearing (100% wool and newly knitted by his wife) and gave it to the seller. With that he was finally able to buy the teapot he spotted (imagine how is life without the warm clothing in winter, no wonder he was also called the teapot crank).

 

 

When Xu reached the house of the Pan family, he saw the teapot on display on a table. The owner would not allow him to touch the teapot. As he walked around the table and examined the teapot in every direction possible, he was sweating profusely due to excitement and joy. The king of all teapots was really awesome. As he described it, the teapot was so well made that every dimension is accurate and perfect, not a bit too much nor too little (in his own words). You could look at it at any angle and it would still look awesome and perfect. Critics said that the legendary Gu Jingzhou made two similar teapots and yet they were no match to this one (Gu himself admitted that his pots were no way near this perfect one).

 

When Xu asked for the price, it was a hefty 30000 dollars. In the 60s, that was indeed an incredible sum. As Xu was only an army officer earning tens of dollars a month, the sum of 30000 dollars looked impossible to him. Yet, in his heart this was a teapot he had to collect no matter the cost. Eventually he bargained down to 23000 dollars plus some paintings and calligraphy work. He must have sold his house and borrowed heavily to raise funds for this teapot. Don't forget his nicknames, teapot addict and crank, he would everything to achieve this goal of owning the king of all pots.

 

After he bought the teapot by Shao Dahen, everybody came to his house to have a look at the king of all pots. That created a stir in the local media. Immediately a Taiwanese businessman offered Xu 100 thousand US dollars to buy the teapot. 3 months later, an American offered him 3.6 million yuens to have the teapot. At that time with 3 million dollars, one could easily buy 3 bungalows in downtown Shanghai. Xu was not tempted by this huge financial gain as he regarded the teapot as belonging to the people of China and he would not let it leave the nation. Of course now the price has increased to 200 millions and yet he had no intention of selling it as he considered it to be priceless because of its historical value (Gu Jingzhou's pots are already selling for more than 10 millions in auction markets).

 

In the 80s, he quited his army career and learned art from an artist Tang Yun. He began to make teapots in Yixing and even won a gold medal in 1985 for a pot he designed and made (the pot is now in a museum in San Fransisco).

 

Tang Yun inscribed on a pot made by Xu

 

He had collected over 1200 fine Yixing teapots from the Ming dynasty to the Republic Era (post 1911). In 1987, he opened his own museum in Shanghai and housed all his collection in it. Of course, the flagship of the museum is the teapot by Shao Dahen (the Duozhi Pot) where teapot lovers from all corners of the world would one day want to come and see this wonderful work of art, a master piece.

 

 

 

Today, Xu Sihai is still busily making teapots. He teams up with renown artists and calligraphers to produce artistic teapots for the Shanghai Expo and the Beijing Olympics. As he said he needs to sell teapots to raise funds for his only passion in this world - to collect more and more Yixing teapots for display in his folk museum.

 

His early work on display in the Yixing factory.

 

A dog by Xu Sihai

  

许四海: 字紫云，1946年生，盐城人。师从国画大师唐云，作品“夏意”获国家金牌奖。与多位书画名家合作的“海春壶”“寿翁壶”“啸天壶”和“云海壶”堪称一绝，并为“八运会”“香港回归”“上海国际茶文化节”等特制专用茶壶。1989年新加坡成功举办个人作品展，号称江南壶怪。许四海是一位在海内外享有盛誉的紫砂陶艺大家，也是一位极富传奇色彩的鉴藏家。

一套向2010年上海世博会献礼的紫砂“世博汉字壶”于2010年2月18日在沪面世，传承中华数千年历史的汉字与中国传统手工紫砂工艺珠联璧合而成为精品茗具。中国世博纪念品研发工作室与素有“江南壶怪”

 

Another Shao Dahen's pot (in a museum in Hong Kong)

Ancient jade story

More than two thousand years ago in China (during the Spring & Autumn/Warring States Era), there was a man by the name of Bian He in the Kingdom of Chu who accidentally found a jade boulder of exceptional quality. He knew that it could be carved into a masterpiece of art or a State Seal, so he presented the jade boulder to the king of Chu.


Bian He found a jade boulder of superb quality

 

 

Bian He presented the Jade to the King

The king had the jade inspected by the craftsmen of the court and was told that the jade was of inferior quality. The king was angry so he had Bian's leg amputated for cheating him with a stone of inferior quality.  When the king died and a new king took over, Bian again presented the jade to the new king as he knew that the jade was really excellent and it was a pity that no one appreciated it. Again the craftsmen of the court examined it and told the king it was very ordinary.



The craftsman examining the jade

The king was again furious for being cheated. He then ordered Bian's other leg to be chopped off for deceiving a king. Bian was very sad and frustrated not because of losing both legs, but because nobody would believe him that the jade was really good. Years passed and yet another new king of Chu took over. Without legs, Bian asked to be carried to the palace and presented again the jade to the king. This time, the craftsman of the court examined the jade and realised that it was indeed a jade of exceptional quality. The king was very happy and rewarded Bian handsomely. He immediately ordered the craftsmen to carve the jade into a national seal and called it He's Jade (in honour of Bian He who found it). It became the symbol of supreme power in the kingdom.

Craftsman working on the jade

He's Jade became so famous that it was the desire of every king in the land (there were many kingdoms during the Warring States era) to possess it for it represented supreme power and sovereignty.

Every king's desire to own He's Jade

During those turbulent years of the Warring States era, the king from the State of Qin (where Shi Huang Di, the First Emperor of China, came from) heard about the jade and sent an envoy to the State of Zhou (by this time, the jade was in the hand of the king of Zhou). He wanted to use 16 cities in his state to exchange for this Jade Seal known as He's Jade.

 

Qin's envoy offered 16 cities for He's Jade

Could you imagine what was the worth of a city that time? All the kings during the Warring State era fought bitterly against each other just to expand their own territory. The king of Qin (Shi Huang Di's grandfather) was willing to sacrifice 16 cities for a piece of jade. One could imagine the importance of He's Jade as a symbol of power and sovereignty.

16 cities for the jade

 

Wars broke out because of the jade



As the Stae of Qin was strong and powerful, the king of Zhou did not want to risk a war with Qin and he asked Ling Xiangrhu (later became the prime minister of Zhou) to bring the jade to Qin to carry out the exchange. With only a servant with him, Ling travelled to Qin alone. Knowing that the King of Qin was very crafty, Ling knew that he would not honour his promise and might forcefully acquire the jade without giving 16 cities to the state of Zhao. Even the exchange was not successful, Ling was able to think of a plan to bring the jade safely back to the State of Zhou. This was recorded in history book and there is even a Chine proverb in this episode, Returning of He's Jade to Zhou.

As kingdoms came and gone, He's jade was eventually lost and nobody knew where it was. Many kings and emperors continued to hunt for it but without success. It was said that the first Ming emperor had spend large resources to look for the jade in his entire life but still could not find it.

Since no one had actually seen the jade, it is interesting to know if He's Jade is of really good quality. What type of jade is it? Some said it could be a Hetian jade as green jade (jadeite form Burma) was virtually unheard of during those years. Then again, by today's standard, He's jade might just look ordinary.

 

Jade of impeccable quality

  

Seal made from Hetian jade

National treasures

In the Chines Arts and Crafts museum in Beijing, there are four national treasures of jade carvings. These art pieces were carved between 1985 and 1986 using 4 jade boulders that were kept in the store house since 17th century during the reign of Qianlong emperor of the Qing dynasty. There is a bit of history as to why 4 jade boulders from the 17th century which were only being carved into carvings of national treasures in the 80s.

Taishan

A screen

 

Incense container

Basket of flowers







There was a jade carftmaster from a  National Jade Factory in Beijing who had heard of the story of 4 jade boulders which were originally kept in the palace during the 17th century but were lost due to the collapse of the empire. The 4 boulders were originally cut from a huge jade boulder (803kg) discovered by a jade trader during the 17th century. As the jade boulder was of exceptional quality, the trader reported this finding to the local official. The local official then gave the boulder to Qianlong emperor as a tribute. As Qianlong did not know what to do with it, he kept it in the royal storehouse. Only during the 19th century, the boulder was cut into 6 pieces, 2 were used to make into utensils for empress dowager (Empress Cixi) as her birthday gifts, the remaining 4 were then kept in the storehouse. These 4 boulders were eventually lost due to the collapse of the Qing empire.

During a meeting with some local officials, the craftmaster mentioned about the 4 jade boulders and he would like to know their whereabout. Next day, a local press published an article on the story of the boulders and an enquiry of their whereabout. The minister in-charged of arts & crafts then rushed to the jade factory and informed the craftmaster that these jade boulders were indeed recovered in 1950 and were kept in the national storehouse since then.

 

Article in search of the boulders

The craftmaster

The management of the jade factory then applied to the authority to retrieve the 4 jade boulders to be carved into 4 art pieces which would become the national treasures. When approval was granted, workers from the factory were sent to the storehouse and when they opened 4 thick wooden boxes, they found the 4 boulders from the early Qing dynasty. The boulders were indeed of very high quality in terms of colour, clarity and transparency. The heaviest boulder weighed 363kg while the lightest one weighed over 200kg.

 

Jade boulder #3

Jade boulder #2

A committee was immediately set up to oversee the project (Project 86) to turn 4 jade boulders into national treasures of art. More than 50 experienced artists were called in to work on the project. Over 70 drawings were received as subjects to be carved for theses boulders. Eventually, 4 drawings were selected and the jade boulders were to be carved into a mountain (Taishan), a big screen (from 4 slices cut from a rectangular slab) that depicts dragons, an incense container and a basket of flowers. The artists who were responsible for the design and carving of the boulders were both old and young talented workers with skillful hands. 

After 2 years of hard work, the 4 pieces of art treasures were finally completed. They were really remarkable works of art. These pieces of jade were skillfully craved into their respective subjects to reveal the quality and colour of the jade. This works of art showcase the intelligence, creativity and talent of the masters in arts and crafts. A tradition that will pass from generation to generation.

 

Portion of Taishan with details

The Taishan & its creator

  

Details on Incense container

 

Deatils on Basket of flowers

Working on the boulder

Crazy stones III

The craze for this stone has reached a state that it is many times more valuable than gold and any other precious stones. People in China are willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a piece of carving from this stone, even raw uncut stones can fetch tens of millions. What is this stone?

This is the incredible chicken blood stones that come from Changhua in Zhejiang or Balin in inner Mongolia. Very high quality chicken blood stones are those that are over 90% red. This redness on the stones is like blood from a freshly slaughtered chicken splashed all over the stones. Chinese like the colour of red as it symbolises good fortune, prosperity, luck and auspicious things. These high quality stones are usually cut into rectangular seal stones or carved into beautiful carvings by grand masters in the trade.

Chicken blood seal stones

Raw uncarved stones

Chicken stone carving by master





There are many success stories of how retrenched workers and ordinary folks found great wealth by trading in these stones. There was once a tailor from a poor family who become multi-millionaire after trading in the stones in the 1990s. He is a native of Qintian in Zhejiang (where Qintian stones come from) but he trades mainly in the chicken blood stones from inner Mongolia. The reason is simple, there are a lot of people engaged in stone carving business in Qintian but not in Mongolia. So all the good stones from inner Mongolia have to be delivered here for carving into artistic pieces (the market for these stones is in Qintian, Zhejiang). So in those years, he was exposed to lots and lots of chicken blood stones from Balin of inner Mongolia. The stones were not that costly at first and they were sent daily by truck loads to Qintian.   He was amazed at the beauty of the stones and he liked the redness that spreads across these stones. He knew that Chinese people have always like the auspicious red colour and so the stones could become a darling in the collectors' eyes. He started buying the stones in large quantities and trading them. In the beginning he sold the stones to Taiwanese (as Taiwanese were wealthy people) and reaped huge profit. He also witnessed the fact that the price of high quality stones had been increasing steadily. This was due to excessive mining of the stones over the decades. As resources become scarce, the price would definitely escalate up. Having dealt with the stones for years, he finally fell in love with the chicken blood stones and became a collector himself. He started buying back those stones he sold to his clients earlier in Taiwan. He also paid very high price in the process of collecting back the stones he sold earlier. He even sold his factories to consolidate his funds to collect the stones of the highest quality. He intends to have his own buildings in Qintian to showcase all of his collection.

 

A tailor who makes it big in chicken blood stones

Huge uncut raw stones costing hundreds of millions

Fresh blood splashes on the stone

How did a stone trader eventually become a collector?

He bought a chicken blood stone for 20 thousand dollars and kept in a safe. He moved house later and lost the key to the safe. Two years had passed and he got a welder to cut open the safe and retrieved the stone. His friend saw the beautiful stone and offered him 200 thousand dollars for it. He was amazed that the value of the stone had risen so much in 2 years. He decided not only to keep this stone, but buy any good stones that came by. It was said that there was an offer for the stone at 2 millions. As he grew to like chicken blood stones more and more, he went back to his old clients in Taiwan and offered to buy the stones he sold them earlier. He was even willing to pay a very high price for them, prices much higher than he sold them earlier. He became the number one collector of chicken blood stones.

The stone that turned the man into a collector

Owner turned down an offer for it at 20 millions

 

Carving by grand master, not for sale

Now, artistic carvings done by great master are commanding a very high price, some are even not for sale as the owners like the carvings themselves. If one wants to put a value, it can cost as much as 10 millions or even higher.

 

King of Jadeite

In 2000, a businessman dealing in jadeite, the green jade from Burma, spotted a giant jadeite boulder weighing 4 tons in weight. After closely examining the boulder for traces of the characteristic green jadeite colour, he was sure that this piece of boulder was of superior quality, meaning the interior of the boulder could be mainly jadeite of fine green colour. He bought the boulder and took three years to bring it back to Yunnan where he was based. In the business of boulder gambling in that part of the world, one normally look for the green traces on the surface of uncut jade boulder and make a bid for it, usually at a high price. After acquiring the boulder,  He then ask for the boulder to be cut. 

Green jade revealed

If the interior of the boulder reveals true gem quality (green jadeite colour) jade, he can reap huge profit when the boulder is cut into jade bangles of gem quality. Fine jadeite bangles have been auctioned for over tens of million of dollars.

Otherwise, he stands to lose big in the game if the cut boulder does not reveal any good jadeite in it. So this businessman was very confident that he got the right boulder of good quality. He bought this huge rock and took it home.

The businessman with the jade boulder weighing 4 tons

 

Some part reveals jade below



Jadeite shines under torch light

He and his team of workers then spent 13 months to study the boulder to identify the green patches of jadeite by removing some external layer of rocky stuff. The bits and pieces of green jade that fell of this boulder were later cut into small little gem stones which can fetch 20 to 30 thousands per piece. One could imagine how much this huge jadeite boulder would fetch when the whole boulder is cut into high quality jewelry pieces. He named this boulder Asia One and has not decided what to do with it yet. At a weight of 4 tons, it must the king of all jadeite.

Small jadeite pieces from the boulder costing 30000 dollars

The same businessman earlier paid 12 millions for another jadeite boulder with a business associate. Although he spotted many parts of the boulder to contain the characteristic greenish jadeite colour, after cutting the boulder 3 times, there was no sign of green jadeite in the interior. At that time, he seemed to have lost all he spent on this boulder. It is not uncommon for people to lose millions of dollars in the boulder gambling game. His partner finally left him to shoulder all the losses incurred. He kept the boulder for 2 years and then later he decided to take a final look. He realized that the not every part of the boulder was useless. There were black impurities intertwined with the jadeite portion of the boulder. He could ask someone to remove the impurities and the boulder could still be carved into something valuable.

Jade boulder weighing 41.5 kg costing 12 millions

Jadeite portion revealed using a torch light

He then hired the best master in jadeite carving to work on this boulder. A few years later, a superb jadeite brush holder of fine quality was craved out from this piece of boulder. The emergence of this jadeite piece shocked the collectors' world. It has a price tag of over a hundred millions. It is the work of a skillful jade carving artist who can turn a piece of insignificant boulder into a masterpiece.

Brush holder of fine jadeite quality

The famous green and white cabbage in Taiwan's museum

Apart from the Asia One, this man also possesses the biggest jadeite cabbage in history. A massive piece of jade cabbage weighing 2 tons. It was cut from a raw jade bolder of over 4 tons in weight.

Jade cabbage of 2 tons in weight.
 

Good quality jadeite is judged by its colour, transparency, purity and cracks. Pure, transparent and deep green colour jadeite pieces often command a very high price.

Superb quality jadeite