After retirement of Dr K.S. Lo from the Vitasoy in 1978, Mr. Winston Lo, son of Dr Lo took care of the daily business of The Hong Kong Soya Bean Products Company Limited. Dr Lo therefore could concentrate to develop his Yixing collection. In the autumn of 1979, Dr Lo visited the Yixing Purple Clay Craft Factory for the first time. The Cultural Revolution was drawing to an end, the society was under recovery but still influenced by the remaining sentiment of the Revolution.

Dr Lo spent three days in the factory to learn the whole process of making purple clay teapot. On the first day he observed how the potters produced teapots. On the second day he toured all departments of the factory, looking at the treatment of clay and the teapot firing process at the kiln. On the third day, he asked the factory manager to arrange meeting with some experienced potters and chatted with them.

Dr Lo made such a request because he found that potters produced teapots of very poor quality when he visited the factory. Not only are products poor in workmanship, but every piece was stamped with ‘Yixing China’ which was completely different from Ming and Qing works that bore the potters’ signature.

On the last day of his visit, Dr Lo introduced himself as a collector of Yixing teapots and showed the potters photographs of some Ming and Qing purple clay teapots from his personal collection. He expressed his disappointment in the teapots made by the potters and asked why they could not create outstanding works like historic teapots in the photographs frankly. First there was silence; then someone replied, “Yes, we can produce them, but nobody will buy.” Dr Lo was surprised and wanted to know the reason. They said, “They would cost too much.” Dr Lo responded with great certainty, “I will buy them.”

After some whispering, the manager finally asked Dr Lo whether his offer was serious. Dr Lo suggested him to select twenty top potters and work out their total annual output. He would then sign a contract to buy all the teapots they made on three conditions: (1) Every potter must inscribe his signature on his teapots; (2) Every potter must produce samples prior to production; and (3) Dr Lo had the right to inspect any piece of work and to refuse to accept any sub-standard teapots.

It took the factory two years to complete Dr Lo’s entire order. When the products arrived in Hong Kong, Dr Lo arranged to show them in the inaugural exhibition “Yixing Purple Clay” of the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware in 1984. The event attracted many local and overseas visitors, promoted public awareness for purple clay teapots considerably and conducive to the popularity of Yixing purple clay wares among tea lovers from Taiwan, Singapore and Japan.