A Tea Addict's Journal

Revived from the dead

October 21, 2011 · 7 Comments

This little puppy is now fixed

Photobucket

Photobucket

All of a sudden it doesn’t look like the $30 pot that it was, but rather more like the silver vintage kyusu that it is. The handle is ivory, which made me apprehensive about sending it overseas to get it fixed by the very good Jeffrey Herman. I didn’t want the item get impounded or anything, since I have no proof that this was manufactured before the ivory ban, and nosy customs type can get into stuff when you don’t want to. Instead, I asked some antique dealers in the city for recommendations, and one, Helis & Tang, graciously answered my email with a name. The guy who fixed it is some old man who sells various kinds of metal awards and what not, but clearly loves dabbling in smithing. He was quite excited to see my piece and fix it up – had it done within 24 hours. The work is not quite as fine as Herman’s repair of my kettle, as you can see obvious repair marks and rougher edges, but I’ll take it.

Too bad though that now I have very little time to drink tea seriously on a daily basis, and am reduced to drinking bad tea in the office, grandpa-style. At the moment, this little kyusu will have to sit there on the shelf and look pretty.  Oh well.

Categories: Objects
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7 responses so far ↓

  • Kegon // October 21, 2011 at 1:57 am | Reply

    simply gorgeous!

  • twinofmunin // October 21, 2011 at 10:39 am | Reply

    Such a cute and lovely kyuusu; I’m glad you found somewhere to get it fixed up. 🙂 Good call on the ivory thing — I wouldn’t even have thought of that!

  • Rick Adkins // October 22, 2011 at 6:54 pm | Reply

    What a beautiful treasure! Thanks for sharing with us.

  • ellie // October 25, 2011 at 3:22 pm | Reply

    This is absolutely beautiful! I cannot believe you got it for only $30!! What a find!! I think this beauty calls for a few hours of dedicated tea time in a quiet peaceful corner. 🙂

  • Jayne // July 16, 2016 at 8:49 am | Reply

    Do you boil water in this on the stovetop or is this for brewing/presentation/serving? What do you use to boil water for tea? I’m steering away from stainless steel, iron, glass because of toxins…besides it just doesn’t taste right. The vessels we boil our water in do affect taste.

    • MarshalN // July 18, 2016 at 3:41 am | Reply

      This is not for boiling water, but rather brewing tea. You could get kettles that boil water (I suppose you can do it for this too but it’s very small for that purpose). Silver-wares generally make the water taste sweeter and brighter, but sometimes at the cost of body. Whether it’s worth it or not is pretty subjective

  • Jayne // July 18, 2016 at 3:36 am | Reply

    Have you taken it off the shelf to enjoy? Do you still think tea tastes better with water from a silver kettle? Just wondering if it is indeed worth it (in terms of taste/health).

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