† †A TALL JAPANESE IMARI BALUSTER VASE EDO PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY The baluster body richly decorated in underglaze blue, gilt and polychrome enamels, with panels shaped as ribbons and fans variously enclosing figures in landscapes, flowers, squirrels and vines, carps and butterflies, all reserved on a dark navy-blue ground embellished with flowers and scrolling tendrils in gilt, 58cm. See Japanese Works of Art, 1st July 2020, lot 218, for a pair of Imari vases from the collection of Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942), Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009), and the Trustees of Exbury House, with similar decoration of fan and ribbon-shaped panels on a dark blue ground sold in these rooms. The ribbon-shaped cartouches on this vase imitate the decorative strips of paper known as tanzaku on which one would write a wish during the Tanabata festival.