Flower Vase with Butterflies
Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
1907–14
- Medium
- Porcelain with green glaze and carved and molded design
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Dimensions
- height: 35.5 cm (14 in.); Diameter: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of James and Christine Heusinger
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This flower vase has two pairs of butterflies forming low-relief roundels, one on each side. The butterflies face each other, one positioned above and the other below, their antennae curling up to a centrally placed floral motif. In the spaces between the pairs of insects, additional raised floral designs are set within vinelike extensions reminiscent of open metalwork banners and canopy adornments in Buddhist temples. The lip and the foot of the vase remain white, and the thinning of the green glaze within the higher-relief portions of the body decoration accentuates the designs. This work, like the sweets bowl CMA 2022.232, has a box lid attribution to Yohei III by Yohei IV. His inscription is dated to the autumn of 1919.
