Chinese Yixing Teapot with Tree Motif

Stump-shaped teapot with a loop handle, knots and a sliced-off look.

This painted yixing teapot with tree motif is from China, and dates to the 20th century. It is painted pottery. Landscape and tree subjects on Chinese ceramics often borrow from the scholar-painting tradition, in which a few brush strokes of trunk, branch and leaf suggest a whole scene. Cylindrical body in dusty plum-brown clay, shaped like a cut tree trunk with a rough bark-like spout. A triangular panel with dotted texture and red scratched marks decorates the side, and a hoop knob tops the lid. It is 5 inches wide, 3 deep and 3.75 high.

Cut down for the table, and happier for it.