Tea sets of the Nguyen Dynasty

For worthy tea to become an inspiring spiritual pleasure, in addition to good tea and good friends, there must also be an excellent tea set. A tea set of the Nguyen Dynasty always had all the tools used for making tea and enjoying tea, including a fiery furnace, super copper cooking water, a crock pot for making tea, a teapot, a terracotta teapot and a Signed porcelain tea set. There are also charcoal, frankincense and some types of jam to make the tea more enjoyable.

Utensils such as fire kilns, copper pots, and teapots are often homemade and can be made or purchased in the country, but tea sets are usually porcelain, signed overseas. During the reign of King Minh Mang (1820 – 1841), the king ordered the Copeland & Garrett pottery workshop of Spode Company in Liverpool (England) to make tea sets made of faience ceramic, brought back to Vietnam to paint more patterns that the king favourite teapot, and then write a line in Chinese characters: “Minh Mang”  (Additional drawing in the year of Minh Mang …). During the reign of Thieu Tri (1841 – 1847), he ordered the Sèvres porcelain kiln in Paris (France) to make white porcelain tea sets, painted herbal patterns in gold emulsion, and engraved with Chinese characters in black enamel. : Thieu Tri year of service (Following orders in the first year of Thieu Tri). These tea items are still displayed at the Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities.

Humidified tea set, Hue style, depicting Ba Nha – Tu Ky, titled Giap Ti (1804). Porcelain signed in Gia Long style.

Humid tea set, Hue style, painted apricots, poems in Nom script. Porcelain signed in Gia Long style.

However, the Nguyen Dynasty teaware, which is the most abundant and also the most impressive, is the styled tea set in China. Usually, the court often sent the painters in the Painting Department of the Interior Department to draw designs of tea utensils and patterns on paper and then send them along with the embassies to China to work and set up porcelain kilns in Canh Duc. Zhen (Jiangxi Province) made tea cups and plates according to the model and then visited Yixing County (Jiangsu Province) to buy earthenware teapots.

Interestingly, the Nguyen Dynasty was at the same time as the Dai Thanh Dynasty of China, but the tea ware of the Nguyen Dynasty in China was not in the style of the tea of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) but in the type of the tea of the Ming Dynasty. (1368 – 1644).

A tea set of the Nguyen Dynasty usually has the following items:  tong, good, beam, and table. Song, also known as general, is a large cup used to store tea poured from a kettle, wait for the dregs to be collected, and then specialize in delicate cups. The pavilion, also known as Quan, are small cups for drinking tea. The beam is a plate for serving dishes tong. The table is a fork that functions as a small tray containing delicate cups. Hue people usually drink tea with only three people (tea tam, the tu), so the porcelain tea set for Hue people usually has five items, including three suitable cups, one tong cup and one table plate, no forks beam, because the bowl will be stacked on top of a good bowl on the table.
Meanwhile, the North-style porcelain tea set usually consists of seven items: four good cups, one bowl, one table plate and one pickle plate. In each tea set, the cup and bowl are the same in shape, differing only in size. Table and plate forks are similar. All four of these have the same theme and decor.

The tea dish is painted with apricots and cranes with two lines of Nom poetry in the form of the bowl – green—porcelain signed in the style of Tu Duc.

Spring-autumn tea set, Hue style, painting the scene of Vuong Chat entering Thach That mountain, with Japanese title. Porcelain signed in the type of Minh Mang.

Spring-autumn tea set, Hue style, painted landscape painting and water, Japanese title. Porcelain signed in the type of Minh Mang.

Frozen tea set, Hue style, painted landscape painting and water, with Japanese lettering. Porcelain signed in Tu Duc’s style.

Spring – autumn tea set, Hue style, landscape painting, Japanese title. Porcelain signed in the type of Minh Mang.

The Nguyen Dynasty-style porcelain tea cup has two main designs:  tea cups without legs and tea cups with legs. The teacup without legs is also known as the tumble cup because it has a round and heavy bottom and does not have a base rim. When there is no water, if there is an external force acting on it, the cup oscillates quickly because the contact point between the tea cup and the surface containing it (such as the tabletop and the tray) is minimal. Still, the cup always returns to the upright position. It is equal to. This image resembles that of a hasty child, hence the name cup of scurrying. A teacup with legs is a tea cup with a base rim at the bottom, from 0.2cm to 0.5cm high.

An octagonal tea set depicting a dragon, with the title Thieu Tri Nien created. Porcelain was signed in the Thieu Tri period.

The teapot and octagonal plate are painted with a dragon, with the title Thieu Tri year created. Porcelain was signed in the Thieu Tri period.

Each tea set is used in a suitable season of the year. When spring and autumn come, use tea spring-autumn moisture. Summer to use tea dehumidification. When winter comes, there are teas frozen and damp. Cup spring – humid autumn with a standing mouth, medium-high wall, medium-thickness porcelain bone; cup lower humidity has a wide flared mouth, low fence, shallow heart, thin porcelain bone to cool the water quickly; The cup freezing with a closed mouth, high wall, deep compassion, thick porcelain bone to keep heat longer.

Regarding the tea plate, unlike the Manchu people who often drink tea in a large cup with a lid and a saucer underneath, “every person, another cup”, Vietnamese people often drink tea with friends, so there is a plate in the tea set. The table makes a suitable cup holder and has a fork to hold the dishes. Even when enjoying tea alone, Vietnamese people use the same tea set, except that instead of using a large pot to make tea, people use a smaller one. Because of this way of drinking tea, the porcelain tea set always has a table and a plate (especially the Gia Long style tea sets often do not have a scale, so the cup is placed upside down on a good cup). ). There are two main types of porcelain tea dishes: broken plates and waxed plates. A broken plate is a plate with an angled broken wall where it touches the bottom, and a wax cake dish (also known as a wax cake plate) is a plate with a bent fence where it borders the base.

Regarding teapots, in the past, people used to make tea with earthenware pots with famous brands such as The Duc, Manh Than, and Luu Boi… That’s why there was a saying: “First, The Duc chicken liver. The second is Luu Boi, the third is Manh Than”. Terracotta teapots come in different sizes, depending on the number of people enjoying the tea: one person uses a pot with poisonous moisture; two people use warm but humid; three people use friendly, tamed moisture, from five people or more use warm damp pants. But there are rarely tea wet pants because “the tea drinker can’t be noisy. The way of communication of the ancients was frugal, not as rowdy as it is now. Only elegant people with the same aura can sit together with a teapot…” (Nguyen Tuan,  Golden ball for a while).

From the design of the terracotta pots, the Nguyen Dynasty kings and mandarins simulated to order teapots made of white enamelled porcelain painted in blue, also full of all kinds of toxic, moist, damp pants… with the titles: Noi Noi. Government, Xuan My Aggregate, The Duc Institution… written in Chinese characters. This type of teapot is usually shaped, small and elegant. In particular, King Thieu Tri signed an octagonal tea set with a porcelain pot, drew eight “vien long” projects, and wrote the title “Thieu Tri year of creation”. These are the most beautiful tea sets in the heritage of Nguyen Dynasty style teaware.

A set of tea set to cool down, Northern style, paint landscape painting and water and write poems in Chinese characters—porcelain signed in the type of Tu Duc.

Spring – wet autumn suit, Northern style, landscape painting and water, poem in Chinese characters. Porcelain signed in the type of Tu Duc.

The tea plate depicts the scene of Thanh Duyen pagoda on Thuy Van mountain in Thua Thien Hue. Porcelain signed in the style of Tu Duc.

Collection of terracotta teapots from the Tu Duc dynasty.

Collection of porcelain teapots signed in Tu Duc’s life.

Teapots were used by many people, drawing dragons and clouds., Porcelain signed in the style of Tu Duc.

The tea sets are often decorated with dragon and rattan projects (if they are used tea utensils) or decorated with “best of the best” (if they are tea utensils of mandarins or intellectuals). People often call the name of the tea set based on the drawing on it, such as a tea set To Vu Muc Duong, tea set Nhat Cong Tung Phong, tea set Dinh xa to sit ai…  The most famous is the tea set Apricot crane, which depicts a crane standing next to a plum tree, accompanied by two lines of poems in Nom:  clams are happy and peaceful. Mai is an old friend, and crane is an acquaintance.

The ancients drank tea not only to enjoy the taste of tea. They also pay attention to the content of the tea ceremony and the artistic beauty of the teaware’s types, designs, and decorative motifs. They admire the beauty of the talented brushstrokes on the teapot, comment on poetry or brood over the “old stories and legends” left on the tea.

Therefore, each set of porcelain tea set is a unique work of art. And now, those are precious artefacts that every ancient player wants to own.