A BAMBOO AND SILVER OPIUM PIPE, QING DYNASTY, WITH AN ANTIQUE OPIUM LAMP
The pipe consisting of one single bamboo section, the saddle of repousse silver showing neatly incised designs
China, 18th - 19th century

The saddle depicting several bats in high and low relief, flowers, an inlaid rock crystal cabochon in the center, all surrounded by various dotted borders, executed again in high and low relief. Holding a metal pipe-bowl.

This pipe is an unusual example of a collaboration between a bamboo carver and a silversmith. The working part of the opium pipe is made of a silver alloy. Pipes of this type were commonly carved from bamboo, mostly fashioned for members of the gentry.

Shape: Pipe
Dimensions: 59 cm (length)
Condition: Very good condition with some wear, the silver with minor denting
Provenance: Austrian private collection

Literature comparison: ASIAN ART. Bonham's, London, November 9th, 2015, lot 260. (for a related pipe)

The pipe comes together with an antique Asian opium lamp, which is an oil lamp designed specifically to facilitate the vaporization and inhalation of opium. The lamp is crafted from brass with several openwork sections and its distinctive chimney is made from glass.

Opium lamps differ from conventional lamps for lighting in that they are designed to channel an exact amount of heat upward through their funnel-shaped chimneys. An opium pipe, its pipe-bowl primed with a small dose of opium known as a "pill," was held over the opium lamp causing the opium to vaporize and allowing the smoker to inhale the vapors. These lamps were crafted mainly in China before the communist revolution in 1949 brought opium smoking to an abrupt halt there. Due to opium eradication campaigns in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, antique opium lamps are now considered as rare.

Shape: Opium lamp
Dimensions: 14 cm (height)
Condition: Very good condition with some wear, the glass with chipping to upper opening
Provenance: Austrian private collection

Literature comparison: Steven Martin, The Art of Opium Antiques (Silkworm Books, 2007).

清代竹質鑲銀鴉片烟槍，附煙燈
品相極好，有一些磨損，銀的部分有些凹陷
奧地利私人收藏