Lid for a Jar with Peonies (1897–1912): Art, History and Details

Lid for a Jar with Peonies (1897–1912) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

One of Seifū Yohei III’s most visually impactful techniques, seen in this work, was to combine complex low-relief designs in clay surrounded by diffused underglaze blue or pink, which he then covered with a transparent or translucent glaze. Yohei III also experimented with clay bodies ranging from bluish white to ivory combined with translucent cream-colored glazes. The atmospheric effects he achieved were considered remarkable.

Object facts

• Title: Lid for a Jar with Peonies
• Date: 1897–1912
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with underglaze blue, overglaze color enamel, molded decoration
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.200.b

A detail from the museum

Seifū Yohei III (1851–1914) was a son of the Maruyama school painter Okada Ryōhei (dates unknown).

Collection credit

Gift of James and Christine Heusinger

Further reading listed by the museum

• Maezaki, Shinya and Sinéad Vilbar. Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.