These pipes are individually made and slightly unique in there own way.
They also come in a variety of vibrant and exciting designs, which will fill your room with Asian atmosphere. A must for any collector.

Two-hundred years ago Britain started selling the Chinese opium from British India to balance Londons trade deficit of Chinese tea and silks. China didn't like foreigners breaking their laws and causing widespread drug addiction. The destruction of 20,000 chests of opium in Guangzhou resulted, after British aggression, in Hong Kong becoming a crown colony.

Chinese Opium Pipes

They developed a pipe that vaporized the opium when held directly over an opium oil lamp. The making of pipes quickly became an art with high demand for high quality pipes using the finest materials available. Silver, precious and semi precious stones, mythical characters,Buddhist and Taoist symbols and poems decorate the saddles. Elephant ivory, water buffalo horn, bamboo, silver, bronze, tortoise shell and even porcelain for the stems.

Chinese make beautiful water pipes that are used for smoking a very strong yellow compressed tobacco and are used today along with large bamboo bong pipes. Opium has to be vaporized to release the morphine which would be absorbed in the water. In other words, water pipes are made for smoking tobacco, not opium.

This pipe was purchased by my uncle during his extensive travel in rural China, Thailand and Burma over the last 30 yrs. Chinese origin.

Opium was smoked through a pipe consisting of two parts, the stem about 50 cm long and a detachable bowl, about two-thirds of the way along from the mouth piece, in which the drug was placed.

Users smoked while reclining on one side, the head resting on a hard pillow. Opium beds, made for two people to lie side by side, can still be found in some antique furniture shops.

Wealthy users often had very ornate pipes made of ivory, porcelain, jade, silver or gold, while others used bamboo, said by many to be preferable as the material absorbed some of the smoke adding to the pleasure. Sometimes the stem was covered with tortoiseshell, sharkskin or snakeskin, lacquered or inlaid with silver or gold. The bowls were made of ceramic, jade, pewter, even lemon or orange peel.

Opium Pipes Outlawed

It was unlawful until quite recently to buy old opium pipes in antique shops as the practice of smoking continued in some areas of Hong Kong and China. Although the purchase is not encouraged, pipes are now available.