Featured ANTIQUE CHOPSTICK TROUSSE w/SHAGREEN SCABBARD

Soooo, I picked this up today at auction, and I just love it!

Or to be more precise, I picked up parts of this thing, today.

This antique Manchurian chopstick trousse came with the scabbard, and the original knife, but sadly the chopsticks were in a damaged and unsalvageable condition. They'd been broken at some point and couldn't be restored. They were bone, and...yeah.

Anyway, I managed to replace the damaged chopsticks with a pair of silver chopsticks from my own collection, which fits the holster and are of the right length and shape to slide in neatly...



The thing with these trousses is the chopsticks breaking seems to be a regular problem. The other set I have also came with broken bone chopsticks, which I again, replaced with silver. I've never seen a set which I could yet afford, which had intact chopsticks. One day I will...maybe...

 

Cool find to add to your collection!

 

I love both of those! Very interesting works of everyday art.

 

The top one is the sharkskin one, and the one underneath is tortoiseshell.

According to the research I've done, these types of trousses came into fashion in the 1700s under the Emperor Qianlong, and died out in the early 1900s. From what I've seen, nobody is making reproductions.

If you do a LOT of digging, you can find photos of people wearing them, like this one from Canton in the 1860s...

 

I love a good deep dive. Thank you for sharing what you've found. Those gentleman definitely look fashionable; wearing their best for that photo. I love the idea of gents being ready for food anytime with their best dressed and holstered tableware. Why not make the things we use beautiful and accessorize them.

 

the knife looks ridden hard and put away wet....
do u think it's original to the scabbard ?

 

The knife fits the scabbard, so I think it is original, yes. It conforms to the style of knife typically used in sets like these, according to other examples I've seen.