This type of double-gourd vase figured in Chinese mythology as the principal attribute of one of the eight immortals Li K'img Mu. This God was always represented with a gourd filled with magical remedies, as a friend of the ill, and slept like a genie in the gourd.

In 18th Century France, they were called 'vase gourde' or 'vase en calebasse'. The marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux sold a pair to the collector Blondel d'Azincourt on the 18th October 1755: 'deux vases celadons en forme de calebasse, à relief montés avec des branchages dorés 960 livres'. The painter François Boucher also owned a double-gourd vase which featured in his sale of 18 February 1771: 'no. 868: une bouteille a deux goulots nouvelle porcelaine celadon...'

Of the few examples to have survived, one with rams-head mounts is in the Mobilier National, Paris, while a pair from Prince Murat's Collection is illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1965, no.191.

Finally, an identical ormolu base is found on a vase in the Louvre Museum (Malecot Bequest 1895), illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, pl.237. That vase originally came from the collection of Jean de Julienne and was sold in Paris in March 1767, lot 1424. It was described as 'richement orné de bronzes, goût antique'