A Tea Addict's Journal

A full accounting

August 16, 2011 · 16 Comments

If there ever were a point at which a person can have too many teapots…

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I must soon be approaching it.

Unpacking and then organizing all my stuff after my move has led me to reassess what I have, and at least think about (and perhaps act upon) what I should keep and what I don’t need/want anymore.  What you see above are all my unglazed teapots – there are a few missing, because they live in boxes and I didn’t quite feel like taking them out.  Of these 100+ items, however, I really only use these ones on a very regular basis

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A number of others I use more sparingly

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Some I used to use a lot, but for various reasons, I don’t anymore

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And some that I know I’ll never, ever use, because I got them for more or less decorative purposes, and they are sized and shaped in such a way as to making tea brewing almost impossible

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Among all the Yixing pots here, there are a few tokoname, which are more or less easily identifiable.  There are also the ugly ducklings — Santou pots, which are less obvious.

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After I took this picture I realized that one eluded my eyes and hid among a bunch of yixing pots.

So, what does that leave me?  There are still dozens of pots that I have not accounted for, basically.  One reason is because quite a few of them are in bad shape, cleanliness wise.  I need to wash and clean them before I can actually use them, and am currently in the process of doing that.  I also need to start doing a better job of rotating my teapots so that I have less “rarely, if ever, used” ones and more “frequently used” ones instead.  In other words, I need to spread the tea around.  Finally, I need to start culling the collection.  There are some items here that I know I’ll never use (personal preference), or are just not practical (usually too big).  So, those need to go.

Categories: Objects
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16 responses so far ↓

  • John // August 16, 2011 at 4:51 am | Reply

    Hello Marshal!

    I am on the lookout for one or two nice used teapots for oolong and sheng puerh teas. If you really want to get rid of a few of your pieces, could you send me a list? Also, cleaning is not an issue, because i like to clean them myself.

    Have a nice day!
    John

    • MarshalN // August 16, 2011 at 4:52 am | Reply

      I’ll probably post something if/when I do decide to get rid of some of the pots. Will let you know when it happens.

  • ira // August 16, 2011 at 9:35 am | Reply

    waahhhhhh! i am so envious….

  • Elliot // August 16, 2011 at 12:22 pm | Reply

    Looks like you’ll need a lot more bleach…

    Curious why you “need” to rotate more–to find out whether different pots might be better suited to certain teas than your most-used pots are, to justify having all of them, or something else? I think we end up heavily using certain pots for good reasons, be they aesthetic, intuitive or practical–in my experience making a concerted effort to turn neglected pots into favorites is rarely successful. Cull, cull, cull!

    • MarshalN // August 16, 2011 at 10:01 pm | Reply

      The need to rotate is because up until now I haven’t cleaned a lot of them, therefore haven’t really had the chance to use them to brew tea at all

  • Bearsbearsbears // August 16, 2011 at 4:15 pm | Reply

    There’s a saying, “there’s always someone better than you” that has fathered many variations of itself, replacing “better” with another comparative.

    So today it’s proved that “there is always someone with more teapots than you.” I have less than a quarter of the number of pots pictured. I thought Will was bad until I saw all those together! 🙂

    But I suppose what I lack in teapot mania, I’ve made up by collecting too much tea to age. One neurosis for another?

    Best of luck sorting and deciding what to keep!

  • Aaron // August 16, 2011 at 4:22 pm | Reply

    Ooh, fun post! If you end up wanting to get rid of some of those BIG mammer-jammers, let me know. I have had a terrible time finding larger pieces that are attractive 🙂 Why do you consider those chrysanthemum bud pots to be “sized and shaped in such a way as to making tea brewing almost impossible”? They are adorable. I like your blog, thanks!

    • MarshalN // August 16, 2011 at 10:05 pm | Reply

      Because those chrysanthemum pots are about an inch tall — far too small for real use.

      • Aaron // August 16, 2011 at 11:57 pm | Reply

        Too bad, I like a fancy little tea for one occasionally. I have some Banko pots that are only 15ml that I use for Tencha and Gyo. Maybe you could find a nice, hyper-fancy oolong to try out in them. Again, looking forward to hearing about any pots that you would like to part with 🙂

  • Kingston // September 19, 2011 at 1:23 pm | Reply

    You have a great collection, and I like the yellow one with lion a lot. Are you sharing any of your teapots? Just curious. Ty.

    • MarshalN // September 19, 2011 at 9:50 pm | Reply

      If by sharing you mean divesting of some of them — alas, no, at least not the ones that you might be interested in anyway. The ones I might want to divest are probably not ones that’ll catch your eyes

  • Kyle Shen // March 21, 2012 at 9:11 pm | Reply

    Maybe I am too late but still want to be on the list if you let go some pots.

  • victoria c. // January 21, 2013 at 5:59 pm | Reply

    Thanks for your post. I happen to have a very similar red clay teapot like one that you posted. It is vertical and has no handles. Here is an image of mine;
    https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-I3EUost5sz0/UPyiLrOy8FI/AAAAAAAAPyI/gDm2TYYi5wE/s400/Kyusu-6-w-Signature.gif
    or if that doesn’t load
    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4uOtYhrrdT01a41aWHEEClFVWYA8f1kQcZceymJ3HPc?feat=directlink
    Do you know anything about this teapot? What it is called, who made it? etc..

  • Buying yixing pots | A Tea Addict's Journal // October 24, 2013 at 4:05 am | Reply

    […] somebody with a, er, teapot problem, which has only gotten worse since then, I thought maybe I should summarize what I’ve learned […]

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