Vintage Opium Water Pipe | ||
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Posted 10 years ago
SteamPunkf…
(1 item)
I found this while rummaging through some old boxes of mine, I thought this was a cool looking Opium Water Pipe. It stands 9 1/2 inches from the tip of the straw to the base, the case part is 3 inches tall including the stash chamber and its 2 1/2 inches wide. The design on it looks like a sun with a flower like border and fish on the inside border.
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We the Brits were responsible for the Chinese Opium trade.
These were used for smoking tobacco, not opium. Opium pipes are much different.
I was thinking the same thing Chada, on both counts!
Have a look there:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/journey-into-the-opium-underworld/
This is a water pipe for tobacco. It appears to be made from paktong (baitong) or nickel silver--an alloy of copper, nickel and sometimes zinc. This was the favored material for these pipes. They were often decorated with engraving and yours with addition of a copper roundel is interesting. All pipes were originally fitted with a brush, tweezers, pick and other accouterments for cleaning but these are often lost. The signature on the underside of the lid is the maker. Yours probably dates from the Republic but could also be Late Qing.
Just a wild guess but if a Opium, Hash or Pot smoker had this they wouldn't mind if it was made for tobacco at least not for long ;D Still great to know the real history about it, Well done gang.
These were used for vaping Opium. There are many many different styles of Opium pipes. The wire implement was used for forming an Opium ball for heating up, not for cleaning the pipe. There would normally be a pair of tweezers there as well for handling the Opium ball and putting it into position.
The Pipe Museum in Amsterdam is telling this:
https://pipemuseum.nl/en/article/aanwinsten-waterpijpen-uit-china
The Pipe Museum thinks this is how a Opium pipe looks like: https://pipemuseum.nl/en/collection?collectionNumber=&museumObjectType%5B%5D=509&keyword=&yearStart=&yearEnd=&brand=&theBest=all