Posted 7 years ago
watchnut
(74 items)
Hi y'all
Just picked this up today ,vintage Paktong Chinese Opium pipe.
I have seen some but this one has a lot of hardware added.
Has anyone seen anything like this one.
Really interesting,I live it.
(Paktong is a mixture of zinc,Cooper,and nickel giving it the appearance of silver).
I don't think it's for opium.
Hello Blunderbuss
Do you know what it is?
No expert, but opium pipes were made with tiny bowls & a lot of these, and other pipes are often marketed as opium pipes in mistake or intentionally. I would say tobac or hash. Here again, I just go by what I've read & had explained. This is a very common design & probably still made for the tourist trade.
It is an opium pipe, just one of many styles of pipes. As to whether it is authentic or a replica is harder to say however I’m leaning towards replica.a lot of the pieces coming out of Asia are replicas. The best source of real antique ones are from old collections in the US and continental Europe.