Just over four centimetres high, this small bowl is a concentrated example of two of the studio’s signature patterns. The exterior is wrapped in diagonal, spiralling bands of millefleurs, a dense carpet of tiny flower-heads, worked in a variety of enamels and gold. Lower down, geometric bands in black and rust enamels and gold circle the bowl. The interior is closely covered with minute butterflies in red, black, yellow and pale blue, and a gold line finishes the lip.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates the bowl to the late nineteenth century. It catalogues the material as porcelain while describing it as Satsuma ware, an inconsistency of terminology common in older records, since Satsuma ware is normally a glazed earthenware or stoneware. The bowl was given to the museum by Philip A. Rollins in 1946. It is the only object in the Met’s collection credited directly to Yabu Meizan, and it measures 7.6 centimetres in diameter.