These large vases are based on Qianlong period hardstone-inlaid and champlevé enamel-decorated gilt-bronze examples, such as the smaller vase (13 cm.) in the Shenyang Palace Museum illustrated in Imperial Life in the Qing Dynasty, The Empress Place, 1989, pp. 18-9, and a smaller pair (14 in.) with Qianlong mark and of the period sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 30 April-2 May 1995, lot 595. See, also, another large example (25½ in.) sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 23 October 2005, lot 403.
The gourd with its vine and tendrils symbolizes endless generations, as the word for vine, wan, and the word for stem, dai, when combined create the phrase meaning 'ten thousand generations'. To the Daoists the double gourd represented the unity of heaven and earth; the upper section representing heaven and the lower section the earth.