Wang Yinxian (1943–2018), a female artist, alias “Zhaoyang,” was born and raised in Yixing, Jiangsu province. Wang started her career in the Yixing Purple Clay Factory in 1956. She began to study and practice Yixing pottery at the age of 14, and produced teapots with both traditional and innovative designs throughout her career. She was awarded one of the country’s highest artistic titles, “China Arts and Crafts Master.”（中國工藝美術大師）

Wang studied with renowned masters such as Wu Yungeng, Zhu Kexin, Pei Shimin, Jiang Rong (maker of lot 15 in the present sale) and Gu Jingzhou. She epitomized the strengths of several artistic schools and was known for her huahuo (花貨, naturalistic ware), but also exceled in making classic forms. Wang collaborated with Zhang Shouzhi, Professor of the Department of Ceramic Art, Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, Beijing, to create this teapot with abstract, curved outlines inspired by the form and movement of snails. Various examples of this teapot design have been widely exhibited and published. Teapots of similar design made by Wang Yinxian have been illustrated in Innovations in Contemporary Yixing Pottery, Hong Kong, 1988, p. 263, no.189, in The Contemporary Art of Hujin and its Masters, Hong Kong, 1992, p.53, no. 9, in Selected Works of Contemporary Yixing Potters, Hong Kong, 1994, p.21, no. 7, and in Zhongguo Zisha (Chinese Purple Clay), Shanghai, 2002, p. 201. Another example is illustrated by Wang Yinxian herself in A Collection of Purple Clay Pottery by Wang Yinxian, Taipei, 1997, p.119. Similarly designed examples were sold at China Guardian Auctions Co., Ltd. 30 May 2011, lots 2306 and 2307.