Japanese early Edo Arita Imari lidded vase. - C1700-20 - 33cm w/stand H.

Truly beautiful quality early Japanese Arita  lidded Imari patterned vase  Circa1700 - 1720 and in very good condition. Probably made for the export market, the vase is of the classic baluster shape. 

A quality piece and impressive vase at 33cm tall including the early hardwood antique stand and carved antique hardwood lid . 

The vase is decorated with the classical Arita pallet of this period with a shoulder decoration of four distinct Arabesque panels of flowers, chrysanthemums  and peonies and intermediate panels on a gold ground of flower sprigs. The main body features a garden scene with fencing and flowers circulating the full body of the vase. The whole done in overglaze iron red oxide, gold gilding and underglaze  cobalt blue of a wonderful depth of colour. One outstanding feature is the quality of the gold gilding work and the superb condition of this gilding which shows almost no signs of rubbing.

Japanese export porcelain vases were avidly sought by aristocratic and royal patrons to decorate their stately homes and palaces in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This would have been an expensive item to purchase at that time.

Japanese porcelains were prized for their boldly patterned and richly coloured decoration. The importation of Japanese Imari ware at this time changed European taste for Asian porcelain, with a more vivid palette preferred over the blue and white decoration which had dominated taste before from the predominantly Ming Chinese porcelain.

This is a wonderful example of a more than 300 year old vase in very good condition.

An opportunity to own a rare example of the highest quality of Early Japanese Arita ware.