Burma, ca. 16th to 17th centuries CE. This is a bronze weight, commonly known now as an "opium weight", but which in reality would have been used on scales for weighing many items, including metals, other raw materials, and foodstuffs. This particular example is in the shape of a Hintha bird, which is a type of waterfowl similar to a goose or swan, and, as is characteristic of the oldest examples of these items, shows the bird perched atop a pumpkin-shaped bronze base. When the British occupied Burma in 1885, they introduced round and flat iron weights and from that time officially no more bronze weights of this style were cast. Size: 1.4" L x 1.7" W x 2.1" H (3.6 cm x 4.3 cm x 5.3 cm), 156 grams.

Provenance: Ex-Paul and Louise Bernheimer collection, Cambridge, MA and Laguna Woods, CA., acquired before 1980.

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#111942

Patina but features and shape are clear.