Purple Clay Pot or Yixing Tea Pot Set

           The other day the cousin of my husband went to our house to give us a few things from the aunt of my husband. I received a beautiful tea pot set and not porcelain but a clay pot set.

Let me tell you about this clay tea pot set or as my online Chinese friend told me, it is called a purple clay. I researched about it and it is also called Yixing tea pot. I love teapots since I am also fond of tea. I'd rather drink tea any day than coffee! I also own an expensive teapot from Cath Kidston that I bought wayback. 

The origin of Yixing clay is usually from Jiangsu, China. They usually harvest this kind of clay. Clay extraction from this place dates back from the Song dynasty (10th century) and the popularity of this teapots started in the Ming dynasty (15 to 16th century). 

I am not sure if this is an original Yixing clay teapot set. As we all know, there are a lot of fake tea sets around. For me, I value it for its aesthetic beauty and the rich tradition behind it. 

My Chinese friend online who is from Xiamen told me that on the tea cups are auspicious words happiness and sustenance. The cover of the box there is a statement to frequen tea drinking makes the body strong and healthy. You can see there is a carving of a woman standing on a dragon. According to my research is it the Chinese goddess Guan Yin.