A LARGE RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'BURGHLEY HOUSE' OVAL DISH Qianlong period, circa 1745-50 The center painted with a depiction of a European great country house in an Elizabethan style set in a forest landscape, above which flies a long-tailed bird, presumably a mythical phoenix (fenghuang), with two further birds of out-size proportion in the tree branches below and another feeding on the ground below, the well with spearheads below foliate strapwork at the border. 15 1/2in (39cm) across Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1745-50年 青花《Burghley莊園》橢圓大盤 Published Cohen & Cohen, Tyger Tyger!, Antwerp, 2016, pp. 94-95, no. 40 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Tyger Tyger!》，安特衛普，頁94-95，圖版編號40 Examples from this well-known service depict a European building which was identified as Burghley House, Stamford, England, by Howard & Ayers (1974) because of the similarities with a grisaille image on a circa 1735 Chinese punch bowl at Burghley (no. cer0075). While the design on the Chinese plates is greatly modified from the supposed print source, some similarities may be seen. Until an original source print for this design is found, the true identity of the house remains a mystery. A view of Burghley is also found in English delftware (tin-glazed earthenware) with a composition resembling the Chinese examples, although lacking the birds or a decorative border. The designs for these plates are thought to derive from a print by Johannes Kip (1653-1722) in Nouveau Théater de la Grande Bretagne 1715), after a drawing by Leonard Knyff (1650-1722). For another example from the Mottahedeh Collection, see Howard & Ayers 1978, 261; the Peabody Essex Museum, illustrated by Sargent 2012, no, 47, 139; the Collection G. Lefevre, Paris, in Hervouët and Bruneau 1986, 243, fig. 10.19; and another in the Östasiaiska Museet, Stockholm in Wirgin 1998, no. 192, 179. For the English delftware examples see: Michael Archer, English Delftware, Rijksmuseum, no. 112; and another in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (no. C.1569-1928). See an example from a Belgian collector sold at Christie's London, 27 April 2016, lot 297 A smaller stand, complete with its tureen and cover, from the Collection of Leo and Doris Hodroff, was sold at Christie's New York, 21 January 2009, lot 171.