朋友的施小馬茶壺收藏 (21-May-2009)

[chin]

今天約了我的朋友壺仔標到我的辦公室拍攝他收藏的施小馬壺。

我自己沒有收藏施小馬的壺，主要是因為實在太貴。二來他的產量也很少，所以排隊也要排很久。三來大師一般不做小壺，對我來說買了也用不著。（其實我覺得現在大部分買他的壺的人都是收藏的，不是用的，壺仔標可能是很少的例外。）

施小馬已經是大師級的紫砂工藝師了，有好幾個徒弟。其中開四海是徒弟之一，我有幾個開四海的壺。高峰是另外一個施小馬徒弟，我有一個高峰學徒時作的壺。

My friend Bill Yip came to my office today with his collecction of Shi Xiao Ma teapots. We have been talking about photographing his collection since Nov 08.

Shi is now a very respected and well known master Zisha artisan. I would like to have one of his works very much but the price range is out of my league. His teapots are priced like fine arts around US$10k. Also he made only a few pieces a year and the queue is quite long. Lastly a minor reason is that he generally makes bigger teapots. I would like to use all the teapots I own, and can only practically use teapots under 200cc. (However I believe most people who collect his teapots do not actually use the teapots. My friend Bill Yip is one of the very few exceptions who actually use the teapots. We used to joke about other collectors who purchase a pot and lock it in the safe.)

I however do own a few teapots made by his students, like Kai Si Hai and Gao Feng. With the wealth level raising in the mainland, the price of teapots by Kai and Gao are also raising quickly, and may soon be out of the "comfort zone" for the price I am willing to pay.

[chin]

小方正
本山綠泥加紫泥
140cc

這是個很漂亮的方器。方器（還有如六角的）比一般圓的壺難做。不但成形難，做得好看更難。上年到宜興訪問施小馬和高峰時，他們說過一些要點，如身筒要微脹才有張力，還要上面要比下面大一點。這個壺就是很好的例子。

Shi is well known for his square shaped Zisha wares. Square teapots, and other angular shaped ones, are very difficult to make nicely. When I visited him last year, he had mentioned a few key points in the design of his square teapots, like the vertical walls are slightly bluged to have a fuller look, and the top is slightly bigger than the bottom. This pot illustrates these quite nicely.

[chin]

小傳爐
本山綠泥
170cc

非常精致的小茶壺，如果我要開齋收個施小馬壺的話，這個會是首選。不但好看，大小也合適。

My favorite Shi Xiao Ma teapots - it's very nicely made and small enough to be useful. If I ever buy a Shi Xiao Ma, this could be the first one.

[chin]

小衡天
底槽青
220cc

另一個非常實用的壺，非常多和整齊的出水孔令出茶非常快和方便。普洱是大葉種茶，一般茶壺的小孔是很容易被堵著的。我第一次看到這壺後就想買個差不多出水孔設計的壺，就是這樣我就買了第一個開四海的漢緣。

When I first saw this teapot about 1 year ago, the first thing I noticed was that the tea came out very fast and smooth from this teapot. Puer tea leaves are generally very big, and normal teapots with 7 or 9 small holes could easily be blocks. I asked Bill if he know of any other pots with such nice design (but not the price of fine art), and he pointed me to Kai Si Hai's and I made my first purchase of Kai's teapot. (See http://chinman.com/index.php?topic=97.0 for Kai's teapot.)

[chin]

雀提
本山綠泥
400cc

小巧精致，非常好看，但不太實用的壺。一般提梁壺都很難用，因為拿開壺蓋不方便。

Another very nice looking small teapot, but not very practical because of difficulties in taking out and putting in the cover.

[chin]

珏提
紫泥加錳粉
600cc

這是個稍大的方壺。07年我第一次見到壺仔標時他就是帶了這個壺讓我們把玩。

A slightly bigger Ti Liang style teapot. This was the first Shi Xiao Ma teapots I ever touched, when I first met Bill in the fall of 2007.

[chin]

今天的拍照從兩點開始到五點。壺仔標還帶了個施小馬的大傳爐。可惜拍完上面5個壺後陽光開始暗了。看到相片時才發現拍照前沒有清潔好茶壺，有好幾張照片上看到灰塵等。

下面都是出水孔的照片。這裏可以看到出水孔也是很認真地做好的，即使這是外表看不到的地方。我收藏的幾只好點的茶壺的出水孔和氣孔都是修得整整齊齊的。

究竟是壺賣得貴令做壺人認真，還是認真的人做的壺可以賣得貴？！

It took me 3 hours to photograph the above 5 teapots. Bill has another one but it was getting late to have natural sun light to take good pictures. After I see the files, I realized that I should have cleaned the teapots first - in some pictures the dust is quite clearly visible. Also if I washed the teapots with hot water first, the teapots would look even better in the picture.

[chin]

My friend took a group picture. Compare to the mouse to get an idea of the sizes.