White Copper Eight Immortals Symbols Gourd Pendant

The waist of the gourd is drawn in tight, the two bulbs one large and one small, and a short stem left at the top of the smaller one. The piece stands upright, widest at the middle of the lower bulb and rounding in below, so that it sits steady on a table. The copper is not polished to a mirror; it is matte, very slightly rough under the finger. The hole is drilled through the stem and runs straight, so the gourd hangs true.

The hidden Eight Immortals come from the Eight Immortals themselves. Each of the eight has an attribute: the gourd belongs to Iron Crutch Li, the fan to Han Zhongli, the sword to Lu Dongbin, the fish drum to Zhang Guolao, the jade tablets to Cao Guojiu, the flower basket to Lan Caihe, the flute to Han Xiangzi, the lotus to He Xiangu. The hidden set shows the objects and not the people. The eight together mean the Eight Immortals are present, which takes less room than painting eight figures and wears better. The eight attributes appear as a group on Ming and Qing porcelain and embroidery, though sets are rare on copper.

The gourd holds a firm place in folk belief. It sounds like fulu, blessing and wealth, and the vine is called mandai, so the two together make blessing and wealth for ten thousand generations. Daoism adds that a gourd can hold medicine and contain heaven and earth, the heaven and earth inside the pot, and the gourd of the physician who hangs it up to heal the world is the same object. One shape carrying several layers of meaning is why it turns up on objects from north to south, in silver, wood and copper, each with its own treatment. A ribbon is often tied at the waist; this one leaves the waist clean.

Three options: on a chain, on its own, or on a cord. The chain is a Chopin, links tight against one another, with a good hang; the cord is braided, dark in colour and not cold against the neck. The pendant alone suits anyone who swaps fittings, and people who already own several chains usually choose it. The hole is in the stem and runs straight, so the cord does not pull crooked and the pendant does not lean to one side. The chain version has an adjustable length; move the clasp back one notch and the drop changes by a step.

The waist is the thinnest part of a gourd and the first to break if it is knocked, so keep it from sharing a pocket with hard objects. Clean with a soft cloth and turn a cotton bud round the groove at the waist. White copper oxidises toward a yellow grey, and some people like the aged colour while others push it back with brass polish now and then; the polish has to be wiped out completely, since residue attracts dust and gets dirtier the longer it sits. Brass polish is gritty, so keep it out of the engraved lines, where the grit lodges and dries white.