White Copper Gourd Pendant

The gourd turns up everywhere in folk art, for reasons that are practical rather than mystical. It puns on fulu, fortune and official salary, and its outline resembles the character for good luck. It holds many seeds and its vine runs long, so old pictures pair gourd with vine to mean ten thousand generations of descendants. New Year prints, paper cuts and porcelain all use it, and the door gods themselves often carry one. The stem has to be modelled too: without a stem the gourd is a ball and nobody recognises it. Stems run straight or curved, and the curved ones look more alive. The stem also has to sit centred, or the whole gourd leans.

The gourd is also a Daoist object. Immortals carry one at the belt to hold elixirs; Iron Crutch Li's holds medicine, and that image is so firmly fixed that a gourd on its own carries a hint of something carried on the person. In the Eight Immortals it is a ritual implement, while ordinary people used gourds for wine, and the two lines run in parallel without interfering. In temples a gourd often hangs at the corner of a hall, for the sense of things being gathered in, and it is deliberately inconspicuous. Hung for a long time it collects dust, which a soft brush clears from the crevices.

A gourd pendant wants a waist, small above and large below, and the waist must not be too narrow. Too narrow looks deft but breaks easily; too thick and it stops looking like a gourd at all. White copper is harder than pure copper, so a narrow waist holds, and a drop is less likely to deform it. The waist line should be rounded, since a right angle reads as stiffness, and the two lobes should be equally full: make the top small and it looks pointed, make the bottom small and it will not stand. The top should be flat so the cord hangs straight.

The three options differ in fittings: pendant alone, with an auspicious-cloud cord, or with a leather cord. The cloud cord is braided in muted colours and suits cotton or linen; leather is stiffer and looks sharper with a shirt or coat. If you already own a chain, the pendant alone is the sensible buy. Leather dislikes water, so in summer anyone who sweats freely is better off with the cord, which also adjusts in length and fits any build without measuring a neck. Cord and chain can be swapped, since the hole is generous.

White copper oxidises from the recesses outward, and over time the whole piece turns an old gold, more slowly than silver does. Wipe it with a dry cloth rather than a wet one, because copper in contact with water tends to spot green. Worn against the skin, it leaves a mark on the back where you sweat, so take it off at night and wipe it. To hold the shine, a very thin coat of wax works; avoid oil, which attracts dust. Once a season is enough.