Xu Sihai

  The story of Shanghai’s famous teapot collector and purple clay artisan, Xu Sihai, and his decades-long obsession with teapot collection is a popular topic. His first foray into collecting purple clay teapots dates back to the 1970s. Once, at a flea market, he spotted an old purple clay teapot. It was a large, antique-style pot made of purple clay, with a shiny, smooth surface, indicating it had some age. On one side of the pot were two lines of poetry: "When guests visit on a cold night, tea serves as wine; the bamboo stove boils water as the fire turns red." On the other side was an engraving of an elderly man leisurely reading and brewing tea under a tree. Upon flipping the pot over and examining the seal on the bottom, it appeared to be a fine piece from the Yongzheng era of the Qing dynasty. Xu Sihai asked the vendor how much it cost. The vendor quoted a price of 500 yuan. This amount was quite staggering at the time, as a worker's monthly salary was only around forty to fifty yuan. Xu Sihai searched all his pockets and could only muster up a little more than…