Duān Yán (端硯) stone is volcanic tuff coming from Zhaoqing in Guangdong province of China, its name comes from Duan prefecture and it’s one of four famous ink-stones. This kind of stone is cherished by serious calligraphers, painters and sculptors. This tea tray was carved by hand and all shapes, colors and markings are uniques to this one piece.
Beautiful hut and the tree in the mountains carved on the tray with clouds like top edge combined with predominantly graphite color stone created amazing end effect. I initially wanted to keep it for myself and still may if someone won’t snatch it fast enough. This tray is made primarily for dry brewing but made in a way that spilled tea will in time bring beautiful glow to it.
Being made of stone it weights about 3kg and comes with custom made box. Letting some tea to naturally drip over stone while using but keeping it clean will over time build beautiful patina like on well taken care of teapot. Duān Yán is great choice for stone tea tray as it’s not as dense as the other stones, so it is not as easy to accidentally chip tea ware on them.
Dispatched from Taiwan