Yixing Factory One Shuiping Teapot, "Purple Inside, Red Outside" (early 1980s, 100ml)
This 100ml standard shuiping (水平壺) was made by Yixing Factory One in the early 1980s and belongs to a distinctive and well-documented chapter of the factory's history: the nei zi wai hong (內紫外紅), or "purple inside, red outside" pots.
The story behind them is a charming piece of industrial improvisation. Between roughly 1978 and 1984, demand for red clay shuiping pots exploded, but Factory One could not mine and process hongni fast enough. The solution was to build the pots from purple zisha clay and dress the exterior in a coat of red clay slip. By 1984, red clay returned to full production and the practice ended, which makes these pots a tightly datable time capsule: if it is genuinely purple inside and red outside, it belongs to those few years.
That is also their quiet appeal for collectors. Beyond being a self-dating curiosity, you effectively get a zisha-bodied pot in red clay dress: the purple clay body is slightly more breathable and forgiving than dense hongni, which suits teas that benefit from a rounder, mellower touch, such as puer, roasted and aged oolongs, and red tea.
The form is the classic Factory One standard shuiping with balanced proportions and a steady pour, and at 100ml it is an easy daily companion for one or two drinkers. The base carries the "Zhong Guo Yi Xing" (中國宜興) seal used on export production of the period.
