The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College records this bowl as a work from the studio of Yabu Meizan, dating it to the late nineteenth century and titling it for the butterflies that decorate its interior. Swarms of minute butterflies were among the studio’s most recognisable devices. They were often set inside bowls, so that they are revealed only when the piece is lifted or looked into, a contrast with the more formal exterior. The bowl measures 8.9 by 12.7 centimetres.
It entered the museum in 1904 with the bequest of Charles F. and Abigail L. Olney. That date gives the bowl particular value as a benchmark. It shows that Meizan’s studio wares were in American hands by the first years of the twentieth century, the same moment at which Henry Walters was buying at the St Louis exposition. The museum’s online record does not describe the exterior decoration or the mark in detail, and these remain to be checked against the object itself.