Can Anyone Out There Help Me Identify This Pipe?

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glitzedjen

Lurker
Mar 20, 2020
1
0
EDIT: Fixed Capitalization in Title (See Rule 9) - Bob

Hey pipe/smoking enthusiasts! Hoping for some help in identifying this pipe.

For background; my father passed away last summer and we’re trying to sell some of his possessions and get some $ raised so we can get mom moved some place smaller, so just trying to get a jist of what it may be worth (if anything).
Thanks in advance for any help!
 

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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
Not an opium pipe. The Chinese water pipes that always get called opium pipes (the more common type has a boxy base with a tall, bent stem) are for tobacco. Like the Japanese kiseru, these are used with a very fine, and potent, shag tobacco that gets rolled into a ball. I'd assume this pictured pipe is for the same purpose.

An actual opium pipe is a long, straight tube like a flute, with a bowl attached on top a few inches from one end. The bowls are usually wide and made of wood, jade or other hardstone, and always have a tiny hole at the top, say <5mm. There aren't a lot of them around; at one point, the Chinese government, cracking down on opium use, held drives, collected all the opium-smoking implements people turned in (smoking opium requires four different implements, including the pipe) and destroyed them.

I highly doubt this is for the leafy stuff hippies were puffing, either.
 
Dec 6, 2019
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Not an opium pipe. The Chinese water pipes that always get called opium pipes (the more common type has a boxy base with a tall, bent stem) are for tobacco. Like the Japanese kiseru, these are used with a very fine, and potent, shag tobacco that gets rolled into a ball. I'd assume this pictured pipe is for the same purpose.

An actual opium pipe is a long, straight tube like a flute, with a bowl attached on top a few inches from one end. The bowls are usually wide and made of wood, jade or other hardstone, and always have a tiny hole at the top, say <5mm. There aren't a lot of them around; at one point, the Chinese government, cracking down on opium use, held drives, collected all the opium-smoking implements people turned in (smoking opium requires four different implements, including the pipe) and destroyed them.

I highly doubt this is for the leafy stuff hippies were puffing, either.

What were the other three implements?
 
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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
Richmond, one needed a small alcohol lamp, with a shade having a narrow top to concentrate the flame, a long pin, and a container for the opium, which was a sort of tarry substance. You'd dip up a bit on the pin, roast it over the flame until hard, crack it off into the tiny opening on the bowl, light it, and inhale for as long as possible. There's some interesting stories out there from some people who were into the history of opium, built a replica opium den... and then, sadly, got themselves addicted to the stuff. It really is a nasty thing, and VERY addictive. No wonder the Chinese government tried to destroy all the equipment they could obtain! Watson's description of an opium den in The Man with the Twisted Lip is on-point except for the fire "waxing and waning in the bowls of the metal pipes." Five minutes of prep was done in one very, very long puff, and then you'd have to start the preparation process over, but the users did stretch out horizontally to do it. After perhaps three or four of these, as Watson's friend says he had, you'd be too messed-up to complete the finicky prep again.

The fine shag tobacco used in these Chinese and Japanese water pipes is still sold, for Japanese kiseru, just in case anyone wants to find out what the stuff Sherlock Holmes smoked was probably like. I understand that it burns dry and hot, tastes something like cheap cigarette tobacco (think Drum or Bugler) and has an intense nicotine kick. Kiseru aren't smoked for the kind of leisurely enjoyment we get out of pipes, they're most definitely about the buzz. I've never had much inclination to try one, it doesn't sound enjoyable.
 
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