We've received quite a few requests for larger cups and decided on this new shape, imitating the shape of a ming dynasty cup in our collection. The walls are thin and the full shape of the body makes it ideal for drinking a comforting cup of tea.
General Background:
We've been working with an ex-forger in Jingdezhen over several iterations to try to imitate as closely as we can this style of cups that we know and love from the Ming Dynasty.
We tried to do everything as closely as possible to the originals - the glazes were made by the last remaining Chinese National Treasure, specialising in this traditional type of ash glaze. The natural clay was wedged by foot in the traditional manner, rather than the standard machine wedging that is almost ubiquitous these days. This produces a clay that is less homogenous and has more character. The cups were thrown by hand and hand painted. Finally they were wood fired.
The base is marked with the characters 放下 - a mark we're using for a range of teaware we're developing.
