White Copper Dragon Coiled Sword Gourd Pendant

The sword-nurturing gourd comes out of Daoist lore and the tales of sword immortals. A small mouth and a large belly, and the story is that a blade can be kept inside to be nourished and comes out with a tap on the gourd. That comes from notebook fiction, not from the alchemical canon — it is good to hear and should not be taught as doctrine. The gourd was already a vessel for elixir in Daoism; holding a sword is a later romance. In the swordsman novels it sometimes holds wine and sometimes a blade, and nobody has settled which.

Longpan means the dragon coiled on the gourd. Pan is to curl: the body wraps once or twice around, the head resting at the waist, the tail tucked in at the base. Made this way the body must not break, and the coil has to be even — thick in one place and thin in another and the whole thing reads as a fake. The scales need not be cut one by one; dot every few and a slant of light does the rest. The head has to sit straight. Tilt it and it reads as a snake, which is where the workmanship shows. Tail at the base thickens the foot, and the piece stands.

The gourd has a waist of its own. Too narrow and the casting runs hollow; too wide and it stops looking like a gourd. White copper flows only moderately, and casting a waisted form like this is won or lost on mould temperature. In the hand, the ring at the waist has to be smooth, with no hard edge left on it. Blowholes mostly sit on the inside of the waist, so turn the piece and look. Wall thickness varies, and shrinkage shows on the back — which you only see if you turn it over.

Pendant and necklace differ by a length of chain. The gourd has a tip; hung tip-down it carries the pun on blessing arriving, and hung tip-up it looks wrong to older eyes. The chain should not be too fine, because the gourd has volume and a fine chain will not hold it. In summer, on thin clothing, a pendant swings and turns over. Chain length that drops to just above the breastbone keeps it steady. An O-link chain is softer than a box chain and lies closer to the skin; the clasp sits at the back, which is awkward on your own, so have someone help.

As a gift, the word nurture is more interesting than wealth: a sword is kept, a gourd is polished, and a person’s temper is worn down slowly. That lands well with anyone who loves blades. The gourd is fragile — dropped, white copper dents, and a dent cannot be repaired, so mind it. The whiskers and horns on the dragon head are the finest points and snag on a bag strap; wear it against the chest. The base should be flat enough to stand on a table, which is the crude test of the work.