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Tea ware
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TEA WARE History has recorded England and China used ceramic ware to drink their tea and those records go into great detail, showing contrasts and similarities between each culture's ceramics. The vast ideological differences between England and China show how social, political and ritualistic issues were reflected in the developments and changes made to the ware visually, as well as its functionality. Were the issues in each culture a result of external or internal influences, exchange, inspiration or necessity? A brief history of the origin of tea as a drink and how the very nature of these issues affected ceramics will be included. Perspectives formulated by developments and changes resulting from various oddities inherent in each culture will also be discussed. In China, from the Song to the Qing dynasties the major tea vessel was the tea bowl, which make up the majority of teacups exported were the lovely handle-less tea bowls the Chinese used. With the increase in exportation, they were quick to copy European vessels to please their customers and many styles were duplicated from prints and actual samples of silverware. Early export ware became a booming business and surprisingly, the English, although the last of the European countries to embrace tea as a drink became the largest export customers of tea and tea wares from China Early English tea ware could not compare to the beautiful porcelains and stoneware that were being produced in China, but it didn't take them long before they were making a high quality imitation in soft paste or slip painted earthenware with various types of salt and tin glazes. However, once porcelain was discovered in Meissen, Germany, in the 1700's this changed and the Chinese monopoly on tea ware was broken. Many cultures were using herbal drinks for medicinal purposes and tea was just one more added to the multitude of infusions and concoctions the Chinese used for a variety of illness, and realigning bodily humors. Originally formed into cakes which were then pounded to produce a fine powder, this tea was put into a tea bowl where boiling water was poured over it and such additives as onion, ginger, orange and salt were used to flavor it for drinking. . The people of the Ming dynasty began favoring tea brewed from leaves in pots instead of power brewed in bowls, and the most highly regarded teapots became the Yixing teapots. Since these wares were in high demand, the Yixing district and their potters became dedicated to the manufacture of their special teapots to meet those needs. There is no actual documentation covering the development of a "teapot" but is can safely be assumed a natural evolutionary step, and became important during the Ming dynasty where the brewing of tea leaves in a pot were the habit of the time. Very likely the forerunners of the teapot were hot water pots, saucepots and wine ewers. This probable evolutionary step seems as obvious as their design. Since they were already in use, it would have been a simple matter making the transition and using their design to create a vessel in which to brew tea. In comparing the body designs we can see a similarity between a Northern Song Yingqing ware wine pot with warmer, which had a white body with impressed designs and blue glaze, and the forms of the many teapots produced. All the wonderful Chinese teapots were made either of porcelain or a variety of stoneware clay bodies. There was considerable information pointing to the disagreements between different factions within China as to which clay body was best for use as tea ware.
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