The wood-fired gaiwan is hand painted by the artist Cao in Jingdezhen whose works are admired by a wide range of vivid landscape paintings. He has committed himself to hand painting for two decades and is qualified as a national-level class A artificer.
The gaiwan features a fine handpainted scene depicting a man is playing a Chinese traditional instrument in front of mountains. The painting is divided into two parts with a half on the body and the other on the lid, providing a stereoscopic and aesthetic enhancement. Made of white fine ceramic, the gaiwan is mottled with black throughout which results from the interaction with the flame and ash in a complicated firing process, giving an impression of Chinese ink wash painting. The gaiwan actually is not only a piece of craft, but acts more like a timeline that manifests how much time the artist spent working on it with the expert painting skill .
The gaiwan holds approximately 110 ml of liquid. Pinched out slightly, the rim is extremely easy to pour out the tea like a dream, and thin enough to prevent the fingers from the heat as well. As the inside is not glazed, we recommend dedicating it to a kind of tea to help improve the taste of the same tea with long-term use, as most of zisha teapots are treated.
