Opium Pipe, Antique Carved Ivory, Gilded Silver, Jade, 19th Century China

Rare and important, opium pipe, 19th century China, in ivory, gilded silver and green jade pearl
(for ivory, see notification at the end of the text).
Decor of dragon and Guaniyn, Guānyīn (in Chinese 觀音) sea goddess of Mercy.
Condition: very good collector's condition Old patina on all of the ivory which gives it a very beautiful color (a small accident).
Some signs of wear which is normal given the age of the piece.
Many Chinese calligraphy. A beautiful object, unusual on the market, certainly created for a very important person.
Object that will find its place in a beautiful collection.
Dimensions: Length: 37 cm, width: 5.5 cm, height: 8.5 cm weight: approximately 450 gr
## "Opium was first for the exclusive use of mandarins, who smoked it to give themselves tone".
They offered some to those who visited them, as a curiosity, to do them honor, and these dared not refuse them.
Gradually the habit spread among the rich classes, among the scholars, the nobility, people approaching by their position of mandarins, and even came, under the name of tobacco of honor, to the knowledge of the people who smoked it. first out of self-esteem, then out of taste.
Today, there is not a district of China where he does not exercise his empire.
He penetrated into the palace of sovereigns as well as into the cabin of the poor.
The Chinese government is powerless to remedy the evil, it has everyone against it. [...] To indulge in this so-called delight, you have to bring different things: first a small lamp, a kind of oil night light; a pin 12 to 14 centimeters long, a pipe whose stem, which is three centimeters in diameter by thirty to thirty-five centimeters long, is surmounted by a porcelain ball pierced by a chimney wide for the introduction of a hairpin, and finally of opium in the aqueous state, contained most of the time in a shell.
We take a drop of it with the help of the pin, we heat it slightly in the flame of the lamp, and when this drop puffs up and goes to dry up, we prick it on the hole of the porcelain bowl.
One then lies down with one's head on a cushion, and with the left hand one brings the pipe to the lamp, while, with the right hand holding the needle, one brings back to the hole the burning opium, from which one aspires. a single long line of smoke.
"# " China, missionaries of the Saint-Augustin Society, 1896
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(texts, photo credit Winstein, all rights reserved)
The Orient, or Eastern world, designates in geography a cultural concept mainly used by Europeans.
Overall, the term designates "the areas located to the East of Europe", Asia.
### Your attention:
Specimen in Elephant spp (Elephantidae spp) ivory compliant with the AM of May 4, 2017 allowing the commercial use of old Elephantidae ivory.
For an exit from the EU, a CITES re-export will be necessary, this being the responsibility of the future buyer.
Asian art