Double gourd bottle

This slightly off-kilter bottle features lotus scrolls painted in underglaze blue against an overglaze yellow enamel ground. The form and decoration of this bottle may reflect the pursuits of immortality by Daoists in China, who believed that the calabash gourd held the elixir to prolong life. Tieguai Li, one of the Eight Immortals of Daoism, is often depicted carrying a gourd.