Saturday, July 04, 2009
Posted by Miss Neddy at 04:46 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink
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A few days ago, a European tourist walked into the teahouse and asked
earnestly if she could purchase a poster of teapots that was paste on the
wall near the window of the teahouse. The poster was not for sale, and it
had been purchased more than 10 years ago. She seemed so sincere and
enamoured of the poster, though, that the teahouse manager revealed that she
had a few copies of the same poster that she had squirreled away for the
past decade. This was news to both the owner of the teahouse and me!

When she took out the small roll of posters, I immediately called dibs on
one of them. The poster is entitled “The Hundred Teapots Picture” 百壶图 (băi
hú tú), which is a pun on a more traditional Chinese picture called the
“Hundred Fortunes Picture” 百福图 (băi fú tú), which portrays the word 福 in one
hundred different calligraphic styles.

The poster shows 100 teapots in a 10 by 10 grid, each one created by a
master. The name of the teapot and the creator are printed below each
teapot. Some teapots are obviously for ornamentation only, and some look
very ergonomic, but all the pieces are beautiful in their own way.

I will be putting the poster up soon in my own room and will take a picture
of it to upload.