Sourced from Jingdezhen’s morning market
In the back lanes of the porcelain capital, where potters still trim on kick wheels and fire in shared chamber kilns, footed bowls like this one catch clay shavings and ash. Sandry Law, our Head of Procurement, spotted them during a trip to secure gaiwan lids and celadon sauce dishes. The bowls were never meant for sale — they were working tools, stacked by the wheel, plain and inexpensive. But Sandry saw something else: a vessel for the end-of-session ritual, when tea leaves are swept from the tray and incense ash is cleared from the burner. She spoke with a small family-run atelier that has supplied local potters for three generations. They agreed to produce a refined version: a slightly lighter body, a smoother glaze, and a neatly trimmed foot ring that sits flush on lacquer or bamboo. Each bowl is thrown on a manual wheel, dipped twice in a transparent white glaze, and fired to cone 10 in a gas reduction kiln. The result is a porcelain that rings cleanly and holds up to daily use. The first batch arrived in Kunming in early summer, and Sandry selected 200 pieces for tea.toys — all identical but with faint variations in blushing at the rim, tiny witness marks of the fire. There is no maker’s seal; the piece is deliberately unsigned, in keeping with its humble origins. What you get is exactly what the potter uses — a utility object elevated by attention to material and proportion.