Posted 10 years ago
Efesgirl
(1017 items)
I bought this several months ago in a local thrift shop in my village of Sweikhuizen, Netherlands. I have not seen one before, and have had absolutely NO luck at all finding another one. It is Japanese (dragon with three claws vs. five claws) with Japanese characters written down one side. This item does not seem to have been used. Looks to be porcelain and bronze. A friend of mine thinks it is a World Tour piece from the 1890s-1920s. I tend to collect peculiar things, and this attracted my attention. Thank you to anyone who recognizes this for what it is.
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Water tobacco pipe, lacking the long bamboo mouth piece.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/319051954823388203/
Very nice I'm not a hundred present sure but isn't 5 claws made for royalty as I said not a hundred present sure. I hope so for your sake.
Looks more like an opium pipe rather than a water pipe, according to what I found on a Google search. Thank you so much for the help!
I know... Everything Asian is called opium something!
To see what is exactly an opium pipe, and have a complete documentation about related item, there is a very informative page:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/journey-into-the-opium-underworld/
kryatango - and thank you for the link! Very interesting.
Zowie - 3 claw dragons were assigned to commoners. Oh, well....
Thanks for the thanks ;-)
Here is one of same conception than your's, with the mouth piece:
http://www.delcampe.fr/item.php?id=119308818&var=PIPE-A-EAU-ASIATIQUE-en-Faience-Asie-Tabac-Fumeur&language=F&sessionToken=sslLogin_a02e4feb0951237715a55f7a8f12c824
kyratango - you're wonderful - thanks again!! I have posted the photos on my FB page and tagged my Vietnamese friend in the photos.
Very good idea! I think This shape is vietnamese, they used any convenient vessel to make these pipes! There is huge amount of copies, your mount seems old :-)
So your very first post is a opium pipe awesome!
What a awesome thrift shop find, that's so cool, nice!
leuk stuk maar ik heb mijn bedenkingen hier