Maple Leaf-Shaped Saucers

1893–1914

Seifū Yohei III 三代清風与平

(Japanese, 1851–1914)

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Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Medium

Set of five saucers; porcelain with molded design and blue glaze

Measurements

height (each): 2.5 cm (1 in.); width (each): 9 cm (3 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of James and Christine Heusinger 2022.191

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

These saucers shaped like maple leaves show Seifū Yohei III’s “heavenly blue glaze.”

Description

These maple leaf–shaped saucers, like Yohei III's 5 shell saucers CMA 2022.188, have a long, horizontal box with a separate compartment for each piece. Now a set of 5, these dishes were originally a set of 10, stored in two boxes of 5 each. From their housings, which accommodate differing numbers of objects, one can hypothesize that while some items created by the Seifu studio were intended to be acquired in larger sets, and thus were perhaps made to order, others, like these, may have been items to be purchased off the shelf in set quantities that allowed clients flexibility in scale.

The box for thesev5 saucers describes them as “heavenly blue[–glazed] porcelain” (tenseiji). The veins of the leaves are slightly raised in the clay so that the glaze pools around them and they stand out as white where the glaze thins. There are longer lines at the points of the leaves and shorter ones following the wall of each indentation so that the design has both a horizontal and a subtle vertical dimension. Each saucer has a round foot.