Colourful Tea Trays

This tea tray is made with antique clay glaze, which gives it a smooth and lustrous surface, as well as a thick and sturdy body, evoking a sense of ancient elegance, tranquillity, and warmth. The hand-painted strokes are lively and natural, depicting the bamboo forest and rocks with lifelike accuracy.

The Chinese bamboo forest and rocks have profound symbolic meanings in culture and art. The bamboo forest symbolizes resilience and humility. Bamboo is known for its strong vitality and flexible nature, able to withstand harsh winters and remain upright. This characteristic has made bamboo a symbol of traditional virtues in China, including perseverance, resilience in adversity, and modesty. Additionally, the bamboo forest is often seen as a place of seclusion, representing the pursuit of inner freedom and tranquillity. Rocks, on the other hand, symbolize stability and steadfastness. In Chinese art, rocks are frequently depicted as rugged, majestic, and serene. They represent the eternal and unchanging aspects of the natural world, as well as the values of determination and stability that people strive for in life. Rocks are also seen as symbols of wisdom and longevity, standing tall and unwavering despite the passage of time.

Furthermore, the tea tray is crafted using the overglaze colour painting craft, which produces pure, vibrant, and full colours. Since tea tray is hand-painted by an artist, every piece is unique and machine-printed decals cannot compare with.

This tea tray is handcrafted using the technique of Blue-and-white underglaze colour and enamel glazed paint. The design features a pattern of butterflies amid flowers, displaying rich and lifelike colours, creating a unique and charming ambiance.

Blue and White Enamel is a distinctive porcelain decoration technique that combines the traditional methods of blue and white with enamel. It is a variation of the traditional Chinese porcelain production, blending the characteristics of blue and white with enamel, resulting in a captivating and unique decorative style.

Blue and White refers to the technique of painting blue patterns on the porcelain surface. It originated during the Yuan dynasty but reached its peak during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This decorative method uses cobalt oxide blue pigments that fuse with the porcelain surface at high temperatures, ensuring the patterns’ durability.

Enamel, on the other hand, is a decorative technique that involves transplanting the cloisonné enamel method onto a porcelain body as an overglaze colour decoration. Enamel decoration on porcelain, known as “Fàlángcǎi” in Chinese, entails painting colourful patterns on the porcelain surface and then firing it at high temperatures to fuse the colours with the porcelain, achieving a durable and splendid design. These patterns often feature exquisite themes such as flowers, birds, figures, and landscapes, reflecting the essence of traditional Chinese culture and art.

The process of creating enamel decorations is extremely intricate and complex, requiring skilled and experienced craftsmen. First, the porcelain prototype is made, and then special mineral pigments are used to paint patterns on its surface. Once the painting is completed, a series of firing processes follow, during which the temperature and timing for both the porcelain and the enamel colours are crucial factors. Improper temperature or timing can result in cracks in the porcelain or unstable colours. Enamel decoration is considered a treasure in traditional Chinese craftsmanship, representing the wisdom and skills of ancient Chinese artisans.

The combination of blue and white enamel unites these two techniques, typically starting with the blue and white technique to depict blue patterns, and then applying enamel decoration to add additional colours and enhance the visual effect and three-dimensional sense of the design. This decorative method enriches the patterns on the porcelain while preserving the distinctive features of both blue and white and enamel techniques. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, blue and white enamel reached its peak and became one of the main styles for porcelain decoration at that time.

The design on this tea tray showcases lifelike patterns of butterflies amid flowers. “Butterflies in Love with Flowers” symbolises sweet love and blissful marriage. In recent times, people have endowed this motif with more profound meanings, expressing good wishes and symbolizing beautiful and prosperous love. Butterflies are often seen as symbols of happiness and love, inspiring and captivating people’s imagination, and aspirations. In traditional Chinese literature, a pair of flying butterflies represents the pursuit of free and passionate love. Butterflies are loyal to their mates, having only one partner throughout their lives, making them a symbol of fidelity in the insect world. Moreover, there is a beautiful Chinese folktale known as “The Butterfly Lovers,” which further enhances the symbolism of sweet love and harmonious marriage associated with the motif of butterflies and flowers.

This enamel-decorated tea tray displays a rich and colourful palette, with lively and dynamic brushstrokes, immersing people in an elegant artistic ambiance while enjoying their tea.

This tea tray is made with wood ash glaze, with a smooth and glossy glaze surface and a thick and solid body, giving it a sense of antique elegance, tranquillity, and warmth. The hand-painted picture is vivid and natural, depicting lifelike pomegranates.

In ancient China, pomegranates symbolized a prosperous and auspicious life with abundance, good fortune, and prosperity. The pomegranate is red both inside and outside, symbolizing a vibrant life and passionate individuals. As the pomegranate has numerous seeds, people use it as a symbol of wishing for a large and prosperous family, and the ancients referred to it as ‘a thousand chambers with the same membrane, a thousand children as one’.

This tea tray is made using the overglaze technique, with vibrant and full colours in the painted design. Each lid bowl is individually hand-painted by skilled artists, making each one unique and machine-printed decals cannot compare with.