Aged Zhu Ni Clay Palace Lantern Teapot – Fully Handmade 80ml Yixing Teapot
Aged Zhu Ni Clay Palace Lantern Teapot
Aged Zhu Ni Clay Palace Lantern Teapot – Fully Handmade 80ml Yixing Teapot
Fully Handmade 80ml Yixing Teapot | Hand Modeled from Yellow Dragon Mountain Raw Ore | Classic Chinese Teapot for Yancha, Dancong & Taiwanese Oolong
Aged Zhu Ni Clay Palace Lantern Teapot – Handmade Yixing Teapot | Hand Modeled from Yellow Dragon Mountain Raw Ore | Classic Chinese Teapot for Yancha
Fully Handmade Yixing Teapot | Hand Modeled from Yellow Dragon Mountain Raw Ore | Classic Chinese Teapot for Yancha, Dancong & Taiwanese Oolong

Aged Zhu Ni Clay Teapot Hand Modeled Palace Lantern Teapot

$197.25

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Description

Aged Zhu Ni Clay Palace Lantern Teapot

A fully handmade ±80ml Yixing Zisha Palace Lantern teapot made from aged Zhu Ni (Old-Mine Red Clay) raw ore. Its upright architectural form, hand-engraved calligraphy, and iron-sand texture give it a distinctive presence for intimate Gongfu tea sessions.

Product Details

  • Teapot Type: Palace Lantern (Gong Deng)

  • Capacity: ±80ml / 2.7 fl oz

  • Clay: Aged Zhu Ni (Old-Mine Red Clay), Yellow Dragon Mountain raw ore

  • Origin: Dingshan, Yixing, Jiangsu

  • Processing: Hand-pounded raw sand (手练生砂), dry-aged for 10+ years

  • Firing: Full reduction firing above 1100°C, unglazed

  • Texture: Iron-sand pear skin with natural mica sparkle and iron freckles

  • Forming Method: Fully handmade, slab-built and hand-finished; no molds or die-pressing

  • Spout: Single-hole, straight-cut spout with removable 304 stainless steel filter

  • Lid: Flat, hand-fitted friction-grip lid with braided string tether

  • Dimensions: Approx. 7.5 cm high × 9.5 cm wide, including spout and handle

Is an 80ml Yixing Teapot Right for You?

At approximately 80ml, this is a compact teapot designed for small Gongfu tea sessions. It works well for solo brewing or sharing a concentrated brew with one or two people, depending on how much tea you serve at each infusion.

If you are comparing capacities before choosing a Yixing teapot, see our Yixing teapot size guide.

Palace Lantern Form

The Palace Lantern (Gong Deng) form takes its visual inspiration from traditional Chinese palace lanterns. Its upright silhouette combines a defined shoulder, tapered waist, and stable base to create a structured architectural profile.

Rather than relying on a highly rounded or decorative shape, the design emphasizes proportion, symmetry, and clean transitions between the body, lid, spout, and handle.

Aged Zhu Ni and Raw-Ore Character

The teapot is made from aged Zhu Ni described as Old-Mine Red Clay from Yellow Dragon Mountain raw ore. The clay was processed using hand-pounded raw sand and dry-aged for more than 10 years before firing.

Its unglazed surface has an iron-sand texture with naturally occurring mica sparkle and iron freckles. These variations are part of the visual character of the clay, so individual pieces may differ slightly in surface appearance.

Fully Handmade Construction

This Palace Lantern Teapot is fully handmade using slab construction and hand finishing rather than molds or die-pressing.

The body, lid, spout, and handle require careful fitting during construction. The flat lid is individually fitted for a friction grip, while the straight-cut spout is paired with a removable 304 stainless steel filter for practical use.

For a closer look at how handmade and half-handmade Yixing teapots differ, see our guide to handmade vs. half-handmade Yixing teapots.

Hand-Engraved Calligraphy

The calligraphy on the body is hand-engraved directly into the clay rather than applied as a printed or laser-etched decoration.

The recessed characters add another tactile element to the otherwise structured Palace Lantern form, giving the surface a handcrafted character that can vary slightly from one piece to another.

Why Is This Palace Lantern Teapot Special?

The appeal of this teapot comes from the combination of several distinct characteristics: a compact ±80ml capacity, aged Zhu Ni raw ore, fully handmade construction, traditional Palace Lantern proportions, and hand-engraved decoration.

These factors are also part of what can affect the price of a Yixing teapot. For a broader explanation of clay, craftsmanship, production method, provenance, and other pricing factors, see our Yixing teapot price guide.

A Compact Teapot for Gongfu Tea

The ±80ml capacity makes this Palace Lantern Teapot particularly suited to intimate Gongfu tea sessions where small pours and multiple infusions are preferred.

Its compact scale also allows the architectural form and engraved surface to remain visually prominent without making the teapot feel oversized on a smaller tea table.

Explore Yixing Zisha Teapots

If you are comparing different clay types, capacities, forms, and levels of craftsmanship, explore our Yixing Zisha teapots to see the current collection.

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Frequently Asked Questions

I’ve been burned by pots that look this small in photos and show up feeling like a dollhouse prop. Why would I pay for 80ml?
Because 80ml in a Zhu Ni Clay Teapot isn’t a shrunk-down novelty; it’s the engine room of gongfu brewing. When you use a high leaf-to-water ratio – 5g to 7g of leaf for this tiny chamber – the pot doesn’t just make tea, it concentrates it. You pour off 30–40ml shots, ten to fifteen times. The small volume stays hot, the leaves don’t drown, and every steep reveals a new layer. Customers who switch from a 200ml pot to this Yixing Teapot often write back to say they finally tasted the “stone fruit” note they’d only read about. If size worries you, measure a shot glass – it holds about the same liquid – and imagine drinking the finest Dancong you’ve ever had from it, over and over.
I received a pot that smelled like wet paint or industrial oil. Does your Zhu Ni have any chemical odor?
That metallic, oily, or sour stench people complain about in reviews usually means synthetic iron oxide, chemical smoothing agents, or kiln residue from poorly washed molds. Our Fully Handmade Aged Zhuni Yixing Teapot leaves the workshop smelling like nothing but damp sandstone. Rinse it with boiling water, and the scent is clean earth – a fleeting mineral whiff that disappears after the first seasoning. There are zero additives to off-gas. We are so confident of this that if you detect anything chemical, we will pay for a lab test and refund you in full.
The body on my pot feels rough, and there are black specks everywhere. Did I get a reject with sand stuck in the glaze?
Those black specks are native iron precipitates, and the sandy texture isn’t glaze failure – there is no glaze. This is the deliberate “iron-sand pear skin” finish created by hand-pounding the ore rather than milling it to dust. It’s the hallmark of a genuine Aged Zhu Ni Clay Teapot and highly sought after by collectors who want the pot to develop a deep, glossy patina over time. A glass-smooth pot made with fine-milled clay will stain unevenly and take years to gain character. Yours starts with character, and within weeks of daily use, the high spots will begin to burnish into a warm, mahogany sheen while the recesses stay matte and dark. It’s not a flaw – it’s a fast-track to a museum-quality finish.
Every time I pour, tea dribbles down the spout or the lid rattles and leaks steam. Did you even test this?
We test every single pot with boiling water before it ships. The Palace Lantern’s straight, tapered spout is cut by hand to create a crisp “water blade” effect – the stream should be silent, round, and vertical until you close the pour, at which point it snaps back cleanly without a tail. The lid is individually ground to the rim; it should rock less than a fraction of a millimeter. If your pour dribbles, nine times out of ten the teapot has been filled past the neck line (fill only to the base of the neck for a clean arc), or the filter is pushed in too deep and obstructing the hole. Our included guide explains this, but if the issue persists, we will send a replacement because a teapot that can’t pour straight isn’t a teapot.
I’ve seen Reddit threads where people cut open fake Yixing pots to find cement fill or dyed clay. How do I know your Yellow Dragon Mountain Zhu Ni is the real thing?
Yellow Dragon Mountain ore is a closed resource, and the market is flooded with lookalikes. Our aged Zhu Ni stock was legally quarried before the mine closures and has been held in a documented Dingshan aging yard for well over ten years. We supply a signed artisan card that names the ore source, the aging period, and the kiln. Better still, the physical evidence is undeniable: real old-mine Zhu Ni fired without additives does not produce a loud, uniform orange-red. It shows a complex iron blush with darker oxidized flecks, a subtle silver-mica sparkle in sunlight, and a pear-skin texture that cannot be faked with dye. If you ever have access to a ceramic lab, have it analyzed – we will stand behind every word on the card.
Single-hole spouts clog instantly with Dancong fragments. Why not just use a multi-hole filter like modern pots?
A single hole preserves the unimpeded, fast flow that extracts aroma at the exact pace the tea wants. Multi-hole filters slow the pour and can trap bitter residue. We include a removable food-grade stainless steel mesh ball that sits in the spout’s interior opening and catches even the finest fragments. It’s invisible from the outside and can be popped out and rinsed in seconds. If you ever lose it, a pack of five costs pocket change and fits any Zhu Ni Clay Teapot of this size. This way you get traditional flow with zero frustration.