China, 17th-20th centuries
Cricket cage
Engraved gourd with burnt design of tree branches,
ivory mount and openwork top of plum blossoms
Ch'ing dynasty, early 19th century
h. 6-1/8"
The Chinese love of the cricket, especially for its song, but also for sport gave rise to a variety of art forms associated with the care of these prized insects. Considered a symbol of good omen, the cricket is a metaphor for summer and courage. Its life-cycle from egg, to larva, to its metamorphosis into an adult insect represents the Buddhist cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Exquisitely crafted cricket cages of gourd, ceramics, bamboo, ivory, stone, horn, and wood, and other objects were made for their care and fighting contests.
Gourds were often used to house and transport the insects. Carving, the earliest method of decorating, and engraving were used to embellish the surface of the gourd. Images were also impressed onto the gourd through a moulding process. Decorated moulds made of wood or clay were placed around the malleable surface of the young Lagenaria vulgaris gourd. As the gourd grew and filled the mould, the images were defined on its skin.
Open-work cricket cage tops allowed for ventilation. They were carved in high or low relief in various materials that included ivory, jade, ebony, tortoise shell, sandalwood, precious woods, metal, and clay. Flowers and dragons were among many auspicious symbols that might bring good luck, health, or wealth to the owner.
Multiple accessories were used by cricket fanciers. Gourmet meals were offered to the insects in tiny porcelain dishes. Special balance scales were used to weigh crickets for matched fights. Long handles of bone, reed, wood, ivory, or bamboo with fine hairs or whiskers attached at one end served as ticklers to incite the crickets to sing or fight.
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