FINE PAIR OF INSCRIBED BLUE AND WHITE TEA TRAYS QING DYNASTY, JIAQING MARK AND OF THE PERIOD 清嘉慶 青花「大清嘉慶年製」六字篆書款 青花開光御製詩海棠式茶托 each with shallow lobed sides of quatrefoil section, supported on four short bracket feet, the interior inscribed with an imperial poem pertaining to the preparation of tea and dated to the dingsi year of the Jiaqing reign (corresponding to 1797), surrounded by a band of scrolling lotus and florets repeated on the interior and exterior walls with a variation on the central bloom, the base inscribed with a six-character Jiaqing seal mark in underglaze blue and surrounded by spur-marks, with fitted wooden stand (16.1cm wide each) Qty: (2) Provenance: Private Scottish collection; inherited from the family who worked and travelled extensively in Asia during the 1920s-1940s. Note: The poem on these small dishes, composed by the Jiaqing Emperor, praises the pleasure of drinking tea and appears on tea trays and teapots 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 prompts 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 Chi'i-ch'iang tea, rolled into tiny balls, One cup is enough to lighten the heart, And dissipate the early winter chill.' A similar blue and white tray is illustrated by H.A. Van Oort, Chinese Porcelain of the 19th and 20th Centuries, The Netherlands, 1977, p. 19, pl. 2. Closely comparable pairs of dishes of this pattern and date were sold at Christie's London,15 May 2012, lot 395 and Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9 October 2012, lot 3081.