Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This screen shielded sitters from the heat of a fireplace. The panel incorporates a Japanese cloth gift cover (<em>fukusa</em>), demonstrating the 19th-century fashion in France for Japanese aesthetics. The French frame is carved to resemble bamboo. In Japan, people traditionally draped fukusa over gifts, selecting designs relevant to the occasion. The lids of the hexagonal lacquer game-piece boxes have a crane in clouds and a tortoise in waves, both symbols of longevity. Wedding gift sets often included shell-matching games like the one depicted here. Only the two halves of a specific clamshell can be perfectly matched; game players used the shells’ interior paintings as clues. Games were sometimes painted with episodes from literature, such as the<em> Tale of Genji</em>.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
165188
label
Fire Screen with Shell-Matching Game
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
165188
contentType
object
title
Fire Screen with Shell-Matching Game
description
This screen shielded sitters from the heat of a fireplace. The panel incorporates a Japanese cloth gift cover (<em>fukusa</em>), demonstrating the 19th-century fashion in France for Japanese aesthetics. The French frame is carved to resemble bamboo. In Japan, people traditionally draped fukusa over gifts, selecting designs relevant to the occasion. The lids of the hexagonal lacquer game-piece boxes have a crane in clouds and a tortoise in waves, both symbols of longevity. Wedding gift sets often included shell-matching games like the one depicted here. Only the two halves of a specific clamshell can be perfectly matched; game players used the shells’ interior paintings as clues. Games were sometimes painted with episodes from literature, such as the<em> Tale of Genji</em>.
date
c. 1870–80
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79993772
genreSpecific
Furniture and woodwork
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 135.9 x 86.4 x 40.6 cm (53 1/2 x 34 x 16 in.)
cul
France, 19th century
accession
2007.182
Source extras
tec
Gilt wood frame with embroidered silk gift cover mounted as a panel
tombstone
Fire Screen with Shell-Matching Game (貝合図刺繍袱紗ファイヤースクリーン), c. 1870–80. France, 19th century. Gilt wood frame with embroidered silk gift cover mounted as a panel; overall: 135.9 x 86.4 x 40.6 cm (53 1/2 x 34 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 2007.182
titleInOriginalLanguage
貝合図刺繍袱紗ファイヤースクリーン
collection
Furniture
creditline
Dudley P. Allen Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:33:43.851000
sourceId
165188
dept
Decorative Art and Design
coll
Furniture
med
Gilt wood frame with embroidered silk gift cover mounted as a panel
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
7fc6c2fafd4ba2a2