Park Jong Il's Da-hae Tea Sets

In February 2010 I created a post on how the tea ware artist Park Jong Il handles water and introduced the da-sun (tea-boat) and da-hae (tea-sea).  When we speak about them in English we ofter refer to them as "boat and ocean" sets  in Korea simply as "da-hae" sets.  With this post we are able to offer four sets, each set represents something special about the work of Park Jong Il.

One should know that Park Jong Il carefully develops different clay bodies for his different styles of work.  Those clay bodies form the foundation for the work and glazed or unglazed they impact the final piece in profound ways.  

Since I have been offering Park Jong Il's teapots, a significant number of customers from Asian countries are finding us and buying his sets.  While their backgrounds and experience with tea varies, like all of us, each have expressed to me how wonderful they think his teapots are.  I will be posting on one of these tea connoisseurs in another blog in the near future.  

Historically, I have not had many dae-hae sets to offer.  In fact these will be shipped directly to you from Park Jong Il's studio in the mountains of Gyeongju, Korea.  Park Jong Il selected these dae-hae sets especially for this offering.  

I suggest that you wait for the "kicker'.  What does that mean?

White Da-hae Set

1. White Da-hae Set: $600: This beautiful set features a teapot with ‘snale’ knob and unglazed interior.  This teapot will ‘patina’ and season.  It is sitting on a da-sun (tea-boat) in a da-hae (tea-sea).  In addition the set includes a tea caddy, 5 cups, a cooling bowl, serving pitcher and a teapot lid stand.

Made of a 'porcelain' clay this teapot still 'breathes' and will develop the sought after 'crackle' patina indicating the proper seasoning of the pot.  This effect is greatly desired by knowledgeable tea connoisseurs.

Buncheong Da-hae Set

2. Buncheong Da-hae Set: $400: This beautiful set features a ‘tum-bung-mun’ surface.  The teapot with plain knob and glazed interior sits on a short da-sun sitting in the da-hae (tea-sea).  In addition the set includes 5 cups, a cooling pitcher and serving pitcher as well as a teapot lid stand. 

Buncheong is the term used for Korean pottery ware that has used liquid clay or 'slip' to decorate the surface.  Usually white 'slip' is used.  Thee ae many ways of decorating in this way.  The ‘tum-bung-mun’ method involves quickly dipping the freshly made piece into a container of thin 'slip' and after bisque firing applying a glaze over the slip.  Park likes to partially glaze his work, exposing some 'slip' and revealing the process.  When fired, the glaze often takes on oxidation 'spots', a highly desired effect.   

Large Dark Da-hae Set

3. Large Dark Da-hae Set: $800: This beautiful natural fly-ash set features a large da-hae (tea-ocean), teapot sitting on a da-sun (tea-boat) in the large da-hae.  In addition the set includes a tea caddy, 5 cups, a cooling/ serving teapot with strainer top, serving pitcher, tea leaf funnel and a teapot lid stand.

This set is similar to the set Park Jong Il uses on a daily basis to serve tea and for tea ceremonies.

Park Jong Il's dark cups are glazed for sanitary purposes.  The remainder of the set is unglazed except for the natural  wood fly-ash flashing.

Dark Dahae Set

4. Dark Dahae Set: $500: This beautiful set features a da-hae (tea-ocean) teapot sitting on a da-sun (tea boat) in the da-hae.  In addition the set includes 5 cups decorated in the ‘gqey-yl’ buncheong style, a cooling/ serving teapot with strainer top, tea leaf funnel and a teapot lid stand. 

This smaller dark natural fly-ash set has 5 cups featuring the ‘gqey-yl’ buncheong style.  This is done by painting the surface with 'slip' or liquid clay using a rough brush.  Like #3 above, the cups are glazed for sanitary reasins.     

Now here is the "kicker" or incentive.  You may know that we are also offering Park Jong Il's favorite tea.  It is a hwang-cha or Korean yellow tea made by the artisan producer Jeong Jae Yeun.  Even though we are nearly sold out of our first shipment of this tea, it is the holiday season and I'm feeling generous.  The "kicker" is, if you purchase a 50g bag of Park Jong Il's favorite hwangcha I will deduct 15% from the price of any of these sets.  I know I could do it the other way around but this way you would save much more.  Note: this offer will not "double", that is if you buy two bags of hwangcha we will not take 30% off the price.  But we will take 10% off the price of any second bag of tea we offer up to 4 bags.  Please contact us for information or to reserve your da-hae set.  By the way, this 15% discount offer with the purchase of tea extends to all the work we have in stock by Park Jong Il.  Interested?  Contact us.  All prices are plus shipping.