Tile panel, Delft, Netherlands, 1710-1750

Although Delft's factories did not solely specialise in making tiles, often combining tile production with functional wares, they created some of the most lavish 18th-century polychrome tile pictures. Groups of tile panels were used to decorate the walls of European royal residences, such as the Château de Rambouillet, near Paris, built in 1715-30, and Schloss Amaliënburg near Munich, built in 1734-9.

Tile panels at Amaliënburg, inlcuding a number in Chinoiserie style, seem to have originally been intended for the Residenz-Schloss in Munich, which suffered an extensive fire in 1729. This fine panel is similarly notable for its Chinese theme, expressed through the asymmetry of the flowering plant, and the presence of a qilin - a Chinese mythical creature with the head of a dragon, a scaly body, and a lion's tail - upon which the vase is set. Panel of thirty-six tiles, painted in colours. A flowering plant and leaves grow from a vase set on the back of a qilin, and birds perch on the branches.