Gourd-Shaped Bottle

China

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 200

Carried by Daoist Immortals, the calabash gourd that inspired this bottle is said to serve as a special container for the liquor of immortality. Ceramic productions of this shape first become popular in the fourteenth century, a period when Daoism flourished, and then again in the sixteenth as a result of imperial interest in this religious tradition.

Gourd-Shaped Bottle, Porcelain with blue glaze (Jingdezhen ware), China

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Gourd-Shaped Bottle, Porcelain with blue glaze (Jingdezhen ware), China
Gourd-Shaped Bottle, Porcelain with blue glaze (Jingdezhen ware), China
Gourd-Shaped Bottle, Porcelain with blue glaze (Jingdezhen ware), China

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