A FAMILLE ROSE DECALOBED LEMON GROUNDTEA-TRAY JIAQING MARK (1796-1820),with rounded sides and raised on four bracket feet,decorated to the exterior and interior with lotus spraysand florets reserved on a lemon-yellow ground that surroundsan imperial poem in praise of fine tea, inscribed iniron red reserved in white and dated to the cyclical dingsiyear of Jiaqing’s reign (1797), the reverse with a six-characterreign mark of Jiaqing reserved in a white square ona lemon-yellow ground, 16cm wideProvenance: by repute, formerly in the possession ofBarnaby Fitzpatrick, second Baron Castletown, and purchasedat an auction of chattels from his house, GranstonManor, co. Laois, conducted by Battersby’s, Dublin,5 May 1938.‘Finest tea of the first picking, and a bright full moon, prompt a line of verse’Stephen Bushell’s translation of an extract from the poetic inscription borne by the two trays offered in lots 32 and 33 helps to bring alive for those who do not know the Chinese language the eminence of tea in early Chinese society. Irish society, of course, would quickly acknowledge how wedded it is, and has been for many years, to all things associated with the ritual ‘cuppa’ and its restorative effects; Chinese society, by contrast, would perhaps be even quicker in its acknowledgment, because from far earlier times than it first became popular in Europe, tea drinking and its associated benefits were praised in the East in a variety of contexts: ‘one cup is enough to lighten the heart, and dissipate the early winter chill’, as the poetic inscription on these trays goes on to say. In the present sale, Chinese ‘tea culture’ is represented here at its highest social level. Cyclically dated by inscription to 1797, the first year of his reign, the trays also bear the seal marks of the Jiaqing Emperor (reigning 1796 to 1820). His father, the Qianlong Emperor, still alive though now as emperor emeritus, had abdicated in the previous year in favour of his son.Trays of this type proved popular, and several examples are known, either in quadrilobe, decalobe (as here), or, more rarely, rectangular form with rounded corners. A tray identical to the one with the lime-green ground (lot 32) was auctioned by Christies, New York, 16 September 2016, lot 1375; and the sister to the second of our two lots, that with a lemon-yellow ground (lot 33), and which came from the same original collection (see the note on provenance below), was auctioned by Sotheby’s, London, 16 May 2012, lot 291.Provenance: by repute, formerly in the possession of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, second Baron Castletown, and purchased at an auction of chattels from his house, Granston Manor, co. Laois, conducted by Battersby’s, Dublin, 5 May 1938.Prof. Alan J. Fletcher MRIA