Makers › Master Craftsmen
Hui Mengchen
Yixing teapot maker of the late Ming and early Qing, known for small, finely made pots whose Jingxi Hui Mengchen mark was copied for centuries
A craft workshop centres on a potter's wheel holding a tall celadon vase, amid racks of red lacquer boxes, an embroidery frame with a floral design, shelves of celadon ware, carved wooden panels and stacked logs, while one craftsman works at a table and another stands at a glowing kiln.
Also known as Hui Mengchen (variant writing) · Hui Mengchen of Jingxi
- Roles
- Master Craftsmen
Hui Mengchen was a potter of Jingxi, today's Yixing, about whom little is recorded. The Palace Museum describes him as the leading teapot maker after Shi Dabin, from the late Ming into the early Qing, with sturdy large pots and delicate small ones. His seal-script base mark, made by Hui Mengchen of Jingxi, became almost a trademark and was widely imitated, and small pots of the type came to be called Mengchen pots; Lian Heng wrote that in Taiwan tea had to be brewed in one. The Palace Museum holds a chrysanthemum-petal pot with his mark.
Life and times
Dates c. 1589–c. 1684 (dates unknown by other accounts)