1930s Tiehuaxuan Yixing Teapot From the Republic Period

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Tiehuxuan was a famous shop in Shanghai in the Chinese Republic Period CE 1912- 1949. Their owner was very involved … Read more Tiehuxuan was a famous shop in Shanghai in the Chinese Republic Period CE 1912- 1949. Their owner was very involved with the making of the teapots. He was instrumental in hiring the best potters Yixing to make pots for him. Many of the pots, such as this one here, was inscribed by him. The Tiehuaxuan teapots were known for the light color Yixing clay and most of the teapots have plain surfaces perfect for inscriptions. It was very popular to have landscapes, floral sprays, bamboo engraved on one side, and the other surface decorated with lines of poetry, archaic scripts copied from stone steles or bronzes. The four character seal of Tiehuaxuan is always impressed on the bottom, and the potter's name is often found on the underside of the cover. The inscriber's name followed the lines of inscription. These are the criteria found on teapots of this famous studio.

This rectangular shape often called a fanghu fits all the categories of an authentic Tiehuaxuan teapot. The potter's two characters mark is hard to read, but the four character Tiehuaxuan mark is very well done. The bamboo painting is well planned for the space and very typical of the tradition of bamboo painting of the Qing Dynasty. The inscription in a very personal style reads "滬江"a very old name for Shanghai, and"inscribed by the owner of Tiehuanxuan." It is a very attractive teapot and so typical of teapots of the Chinese Republic Period. See less