Tea bricks

[Prosit]

I assume it was struck similar to the way tea bricks were struck.  Anyone ever see a struck tea brick?
Dale

[oldmoney]

Anyone ever see a struck tea brick?

Yes, several within the last year, through one of the auction houses of my company.

[Prosit]

I have never seen one.  I always wondered about them.  Did they sell for a lot?
Dale

Yes, several within the last year, through the auction house of my employment.

[Figleaf]

From memory, these were not really used as money, but rather as dowry for a bride. However, wiki (several pictures in that lemma) says it was used to pay.

Peter

[Prosit]

I suspose there are modern ones.  I would like to have a tea brick even if it was made for a tourist 

I think it is pretty cool.

Dale

[oldmoney]

While one of our auction houses has offered Tea Bricks, none have sold and there are no images available for public viewing. In an Internet search I came across this vendor link where teas of various types are offered, including bricks at very reasonable prices. Though these bricks are no doubt modern and not of those which were sold many years ago by Jørgen Sømod in Europe, one may still have an interest in obtaining a brick; if not for the supposed medicial properties, but perhaps to have an example for a collection or display.

http://www.silkroadtea.com/black_teas.htm

[Prosit]

Thanks for the link!

Dale

[Medalstrike]

The Zhuan-Cha was originally developed in the Tang Dynasty of China,
at tea on the adventurous and arduous caravan routes to Russia and Tibet
transported to compact and durable.
The tea was compressed into rock-hard bricks, and so greatly reduced in volume.
From the broken pieces of brick were then poured on and.

The original Teabrick had in the bottom row 7 characters and above 5 stars
The modern Teabrick have uses 8 characters and up 5 stars.
Furthermore, there are restrikes with only 3 stars.

http://www.stashtea.com/products/Authentic+Chinese+Tea+Brick.aspx

Dietmar

[oldmoney]

I understand that examples ancient tea bricks - ones which ocassionally appear in auction - are highly sought by persons in Asia who seek not only an association with their "ancestors", but actually will break up the bricks and make tea for medicinal uses. This of course creates rarity of surviving historical bricks and limits the survivors
to those which are housed in museums.

[Medalstrike]

I once had an original Teabrick can acquire,
the condition and the price of 800 DM kept me from them.
This nice piece, I then purchased for 20 marks.

Dietmar

[Prosit]

I got a tea brick for Christmas  
It is entirely edible/drinkable but I will make a display out of it.

It is about 120mm by 185mm by 20mm thick (roughly 5 inch by 7 inch by 1 inch).
An inch is actually 25.4mm but that is the rough measurement.

Dale

[Prosit]

I had the image upside down    so you may need to refresh the view if you had previously looked at it.
Thanks Martin!

Dale

[translateltd]

The text across the bottom says where it was made - if only I could make it out properly.  China something Province something tea something mint/manufacture.

[Prosit]

Interesting...I didn't suspect it was actually from China.  That is cool.  Here is an expanded look at the characters.

Dale

[translateltd]

Thanks, Dale - the province is Hubei.  See the characters shown above the map on this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubei

which are the same as characters 3 - 5 in the block of text on your brick.  The 4th-last is "tea" and the 2nd-last and last mean "place of manufacture" or "made at".  The three characters between "province" and "tea" will be the name of the company or factory.  If you have any packaging with the brick it may even appear in Romanised form on that somewhere.  Yue Li something, maybe???