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The earliest documented Yixing teapot, discovered in 1984 from the tomb of Wu Jing, a Ming Dynasty eunuch, outside the Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing, is now preserved at the Nanjing Museum. This teapot is the oldest dated example of its kind. Characteristic of early purple clay teapots, it was hand-built, showing joint lines on its semi-spherical belly, and was fired alongside other ceramics, acquiring kiln drip marks from the glaze. This indicates that purple clay pottery was not yet fired in separate saggars at that time.
The teapot features a liver-red hue, a spherical belly, flat bottom, short straight neck, and a flat round lid without a lip line. The lid is adorned with a taro-shaped high knob, and a bar-shaped cross rib on its inside; it has a gourd-shaped knob and a curved spout fixed using the drill-hole and mud-plugging technique. The handle on the shoulder, sea-thorn shaped with four sides, is pinched in a style reminiscent of 'Luoguo Che' in Ming-style furniture, featuring Japanese-style angles and a small loop at the back for a lid string. According to the tomb inscription, Wu Jing died in 1533, the twelfth year of the Jiajing Emperor, dating the teapot to before that year. Despite his notorious role as a corrupt eunuch in the chaotic Ming bureaucracy, Wu Jing evidently cherished his tea, as evidenced by his burial with his purple clay teapot. Despite its rough craftsmanship and uneven color due to the era's firing techniques, the teapot's robust and well-defined form, with a high handle creating a void space that softens the visual weight of the body, conveys a stable and elegant charm that resonates with the solemn simplicity of Ming-style furniture. This piece, the only early Jiajing-era purple clay artifact with a confirmed date, serves as an important reference for dating early purple clay pottery.
