JIAQING SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN IRON RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1796-1820)

Details

AN IMPERIAL INSCRIBED LIME-GREEN-GROUND FAMILLE ROSE QUADRILOBED TRAY
JIAQING SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN IRON RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1796-1820)
The quadrilobed tray is inscribed in iron red within a cartouche of conforming shape with an imperial poem followed by a dingsi cyclical date corresponding to 1797, succeeded by the two characters yuzhi and two seals, Jia and Qing. The well is decorated with a band of detached composite floral sprays, beneath a further band of floral sprays of larger size on the sides, which is repeated on the exterior. The base is covered with a lime-green enamel reserving the reign mark in the centre.
6 3/8 in. (16.3 cm.) wide

Provenance

Collection of Chin Hai Wang, acquired in Taiwan before 1964, and thence by descent within the family.

Lot Essay

The poem, composed by the Jiaqing Emperor, praises the pleasure of drinking tea and appears on tea trays and tea pots of different palettes. S.W. Bushell translates the poem in Oriental Ceramic Art, London, 1981, p. 239, as:
'Finest tribute tea of the first picking
And a bright full moon prompt a line of verse.
A lively fire glows in the bamboo stove,
The water is boiling in the stone griddle,
Small bubbles rise like ears of fish or crab.
Of rare Ch'i-ch'iang tea, rolled in tiny balls,
One cup is enough to lighten the heart,
And dissipate the early winter chill.'

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