Chinese Yixing Box-Form Teapot

Flat, square-faced teapot with a loop handle that has no time for curves.

This yixing box-form teapot is from China, and dates to the 20th century. It is pottery. Yixing, in Jiangsu Province, is famous for teapots made from a local purple-brown clay called zisha, fired unglazed and often developing a soft sheen with use. Slab-sided pot in a grainy tan-brown clay, with a rounded square body and a shallow recessed front panel. A thin looped handle sits on the left, a short bamboo-like spout on the right, and a small knob tops the lid. It is 5.75 inches wide, 2 deep and 4 high.

Square by design, and very sure of its edges.