Purple Clay Teapots
The purple clay used to make Yixing teapots is from Yixing (宜興) county. It is mostly from Mount Ding (丁山) and Mount Shu (蜀山) in Dingshu township where nearly a million workers and artisans worked to produce teapots in the late imperial period.
Famous teapot craftsmen dominated the craft in the Ming and Qing period. In the Republican period, famous calligraphers and painters also participated in decorating the teapots. A drastic decline in the art occurred in the 1950s, when only around fifty masters were recorded in Yixing.
The photo was taken in September 2014 in Yixing. It shows Fan Yi (范毅) who learned the art from master Gu Jingzhou (顧景舟).
Source: Pan Wenlong (潘文龍) and Gong Wei (龔為), Old Trades of Jiangsu: A Glimpse《江蘇老行當百業寫真》, Phoenix Education Publishing Company, 2018. Permission to use the photos has been obtained.