1. The cap must be firm and should not move around easily.

2. The body must not feel grainy.

3. The knob on the cap must be ergonomic and in sync with the rest of the body.

4. The body should be able to hold substantial water.

5. The teapot which is artistic and valuable USUALLY but not always contain enough tea to serve 2-3 persons and not masses

6. TeoChew teapots are generally not valuable except for a few teapots that were made in the early postwar years.

7. When water is poured out of the teapot, it should come out in a beautiful stream

8. The handle should be erogonomic and enable one to hold the teapot firmly.

9. The mouth may have a net to catch unwanted tea leaves.

10. The hardness of the body should be just right. If too hard , that means that the teapot artist has used too much metallic elements and may be brittle and break easily.

11. The colour should not be dyed.

12. The shape should be flowing and there should not be awkward proportions.

13. Expert collectors do not collect 1990s teapots. They like those that are made in Qing Dynasty, Republic of China 1911-1949,early postwar, teapots made in the cultural revolution 1970s and in the 1980s.

14. Unusual shapes usually indicate high craftsmanship

15. Teapot should be made of purple clay or zhu ni clay.

16. Be careful of those with high lead content.

17. Usually, the bottom of the teapot cap would have the name of the artist engraved or moulded onto it.

18. Good teapots tend to have skin that feel brittle and its walls are usually thinner than the inferior or imitation pots.

Interesting Trivial

To see whether a teapot is good or not, one of the many indicators is flipping the teapot over and see whether the mouth of the sprout, the opening on the body and the handle are at the same height, thus the teapot should be able to stand firmly on the table upside down. However, this rule does not apply on some teapot shapes that are unusual. It applies to most conventional shapes though.



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