Tortoiseshell Opium Pipe with Stamped Bowl

This elegant bamboo pipe dates to the 19th century and was originally used for smoking opium. Unlike a tobacco pipe, the opium pipe was designed especially to allow resinous opium to be vaporized, rather than burned. Consequently, opium pipes have a distinctive form, featuring a long pipe-stem with a mouthpiece at one end and a pipe bowl affixed by a metal saddle two-thirds down the pipe. The opposite end of the stem would remain sealed, ensuring all airflow passed through pipe-bowl.

This example has a slender bamboo stem sheathed in a translucent veneer of tortoiseshell. The pipe stem ends in a bone mouthpiece and two metal fittings with blue enamel decoration in the manner of cloisonné. An elegant saddle of white brass adds silvery contrast to the tortoiseshell veneer and secures a ceramic pipe bowl with stamped and etched decoration.

Original end piece has been lost. Some peeling of tortoiseshell veneer.

Additional Dimensions:
Pipe Bowl: 2.75"Dia x 1.75"H