Opium Pipe, China, Rare & Important Pipe In Gilded Brass And Green Jadeite From The 19th Century

Rare and important, opium pipe, 19th century China, in gilded brass, dragon and phoenix decoration, calligraphy, representations of the symbol of good omen and good life.
The stem has a buffalo horn insert with an ivory tip at the end.
A beautiful oval gray-green jadeite is set on the top Condition:
very good condition, collection Light discoloration on the whole which gives it a very beautiful patina.
Some signs of wear which is normal given the age of the piece.
An object of great beauty, rare on the market, certainly created for an important person.
Object that will find its place in a beautiful collection.
Dimensions: Length: 34.5 cm, height: 4.7 cm
PAGE 7 of our gallery you will find its little sister and another model of pipe.
## "Opium was first for the exclusive use of mandarins, who smoked it to give themselves tone".
They offered it to those who visited them, as a curiosity, to do them honor, and they did not dare to refuse them. Little by little the habit spread among the wealthy classes, among the learned, the nobility, people approaching the mandarins in their position, and even came, under the name of honor tobacco, 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 it does not exercise its empire.
It has penetrated into the palaces of the sovereigns as well as into the huts of the poor.
The Chinese government is powerless to remedy the evil, it has everyone against it. [...] To indulge in this supposed delight, it is necessary to equip oneself with different things: first a small lamp, a sort of oil night light; of a pin 12 to 14 centimeters long, of a pipe whose stem, which is three centimeters in diameter by thirty to thirty-five centimeters long, is topped with a porcelain ball pierced with a chimney wide enough to insert a hairpin, and finally of opium in an aqueous state, contained most of the time in a shell. We take a drop with the pin, we heat it slightly in the flame of the lamp, and when this drop swells and is about to dry out, we stick it on the hole of the porcelain furnace. We then lie down with our head on a cushion, and with the left hand we bring the pipe close to the lamp, while, with the right hand holding the needle, we bring the burning opium back to the hole, the smoke of which we inhale in a single long draught. »
# "China, missionaries of the Society of Saint Augustine, 1896"
Dimensions: Length: 34.5 cm, height: 4.7 cm FREE SHIPPING FOR FRANCE 0€ / EUROPE 25€ / WORLD 50€
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The Orient, or oriental world, designates in geography a cultural concept mainly used by Europeans. Globally, the term designates "the areas located to the East of Europe", Asia.