AN IMPERIAL MOLDED GOURD ‘SHOU’ SNUFF BOTTLE, QIANLONG SHANGWAN MARK AND OF THE PERIODChina, 1736-1795. Of square section and double-gourd form with a short cylindrical neck, the lower bulb with four main sides each enclosing shou medallions alternating with pairs of triangular panels, the upper bulb with four sides similarly molded with shou characters. The mouth rim neatly fitted with a tortoiseshell top platelet. The base with a moldedQianlong shangwan four-character mark which is only partly legible.Provenance: From the collection of Chip and Muffy Matthews, St. Louis, USA. Churchill “Chip” Matthews, Jr. (1940-2021) and Martha “Muffy” Matthews were American collectors of Chinese snuff bottles who traveled extensively. Chip was a US army veteran, who founded the noted medicalpany Wrymark Inc. in 1989. In 2013, their private garden was featured by St. Louis Homes and Lifestyles as the ‘Garden of the Year’.Condition: Very good condition with extensive old wear as expected and some manufacturing irregularities, including the partially obscured Qianlong mark, and few tiny nicks.Stopper: Gilt metalWeight: 11.6 gDimensions: Height incl. stopper 94 mm. Diameter neck 17 mm and mouth 5 mmGourd vessels such as the present example were formed by placing a wooden mold around the young gourd and allowing the natural growth within these confines to form the shape and decoration. None of the decoration or the mark is cut by a knife, all is a mirror of the carved decoration within the mold. The earliest known use of such a technique appears to date to the Warring States period (480-221 BC). A gourd mouthpiece for a musical instrument was found in a Chu tomb in Changsha, Hunan province. Though 16th-century texts attest to the gourd-molding technique, the earliest extant examples appear to date to the reign of Kangxi.The appreciation of gourd molding, which had flourished under the Kangxi Emperor, experienced a short revival during the Qianlong era where it was reserved for an exclusive group of gourd vesselsmissioned by the Emperor himself for his personal enjoyment and collection.Expert’s note: For further discussions on gourd vessels see W. Weng and Y. Boda, The Palace Museum: Peking, Treasures of the Forbidden City, p. 287, and H. Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, nos. 91 and 92. Hugh M. Moss, ibidem, page 124, states, “The Kangxi and Qianlong periods mark the height of decorated gourds for the good reason that both Emperors were keen collectors. The Kangxi Emperor's enthusiasm is vouched for by his development of this humble art form in the palace, and is further endorsed by the demonstration of the Qianlong Emperor's interest, when he wrote a foreword to a poem entitled ‘In Praise of a Gourd Vessel’, as follows: “The manufacture of gourd vessels started in the Kangxi era when the Emperor ordered that gourds be grown into molds to produce bowls, jars, dishes, and boxes as requi