Found in a Dingshu courtyard, shaped by an old hand
Michael Zhan first spotted this monkey in a small courtyard workshop in Dingshu, Yixing — a place where the scent of damp clay and wood-smoke hangs in the air year-round. The master, a wiry man in his seventies, had been making tea pets for over four decades. His fingers moved with the muscle memory of someone who’d shaped thousands of figures, each one a small meditation. This monkey was part of a litter of zodiac pieces he makes every spring, but only the ones that survive the high-temperature wood firing — where clay can warp or crack — make it to the table. The dark zisha blend is his own, dug from local ore and aged in his cellar. Michael watched him pinch the monkey’s hand into the Hóu gesture, a peach resting in its palm, and knew it belonged on our trays. Each piece carries the master’s tiny stamp on the base, a seal no bigger than a sesame seed. We brought back seven from this batch; the monkey was the one that made us smile.