Featured Early 20th Century Opium Raids-Up in smoke.

Okay... I'm not even going to try to figure out the joke.

 

enjoy the book !

 

If the author writes the way he speaks (or how he "sounds" in the interview), I'm sure that I will.

 

For bosko69 and Figtree3:
I put that collection together over the past 25 years, from estate sales and eBay purchases. Opium items were much more common on eBay 15-25 years ago. They were often misidentified and I only found them through clever searches. I’m selling because I am almost getting old, live in a small place, and trying to raise cash.

I lived and worked in Bangkok from 1985-1998 and I saw lots of opium stuff during those years (for cheap prices), but I did not start collecting it until after I moved back to the States. I was intrigued by what I saw in Thailand (and Laos ) but never quite figured out exactly what it was or how it was used. No Internet then, nor books on the subject (at least not in Thailand).

I bought Steve Martin’s books right after they came out (2007 and 2012), and I corresponded with him for several years as I was collecting and he was writing. We shared a lot in common, including having lived many years in Thailand, where he was a journalist and I worked in the editorial dept. of a newspaper in Bangkok, but we never crossed paths there. He was originally from San Diego, and we were hoping to meet up, but alas that never happened, as he died of brain cancer a few years later, age 53. Both of his opium books are very good.

(click on pics to enlarge)

 

You must have been swimming in paraphernalia in Bangkok back then.

 

would u care to weigh in.... no pun intended .....on this thread...?
as it looks like you have a set....

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/antique-burmese-opium-weights-questions.73904/

 

@ komokwa
The "opium weights" shown in that thread (more accurately called Burmese animal weights, because they were used for much more than weighing opium), are recent reproductions. The "opium pillow" there is genuine and old. But that style of pillow, like the weights, was used more generally, not only when smoking opium.

In my collection photo you can see two opium pillows that were sold to and used exclusively in Chinese and SE Asian dens for smoking opium. They are the ones with the slanting top surface (not the blue & white ones). All of those with the slanted top surface were made by the Shi Wan kilns in southern China (1880-1920).

Here's a photo of author Steve Martin putting one to proper use:

 

and another, back in the day:

 

I'm sorry to hear that. Thanks for the information!

 

thank you !

 

Paul-There's a ton of 'Opium Boxes/Containers' on Ebay & Etsy,is there anyway to tell if a box was specifically used just for opium ? I'd think like the weights they were also used for a variety of purposes.

 

Yes, the only way to know for sure is if there is old residue inside, which is very rare. I have maybe 20 boxes of different styles and only one of them has that black, now dried up, reside inside. Look on eBay for "Antique Chinese Opium Box #404" which is an opium box. That seller has others, as well, that look legit. The more common cylindrical brass/cloisonne boxes that measure about 3" x 3" were often used for opium, cigarettes, and tea, but usually that size was larger than a person would use for opium.

 

That one I have with the residue inside was from a collection of 14 that came from Charlotte Horstmann & Gerald Godfrey Ltd (Hong Kong) when they closed in 2005. They are all rather small, not ornate, and made of brass or paktong.

Here they are, and one photo of the one in question:

 

@ bosko69
Come to think of it, there is one other type of small box that was also exclusively used for carrying around your opium paste (chandu). Quite small, around 1”x 2” in size, and made of lathe-turned buffalo horn, bone, ivory, or wood, usually.

Here are my two:



this looks like wood, but shine a light inside and it is semi-translucent buffalo horn.

 

Beautiful

 

I find the lamps to be most interesting..

 

@komokwa
I've read in a few places that if & when smokers in the old days finally quit, it was the soft glow of the lamp that they missed more than anything else.

one of mine

 

Funny, I was watching a fictional series on Netflix last night and there was a brief scene with a woman smoking a long pipe and holding it up to a lamp. Before this thread started I would not have realized that she was supposed to be smoking opium. The scene was just setting a mood, and not important to the story (at least, not so far).

 

I learned about Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado .....from a Batman comic book !

Funny how we learn stuff from where we don't expect it ......

( I never knew it was considered Art Deco until just now....)

 

The Christ on Corcovado is not even shown or mentioned in Elvis' movie 'Fun In Acapulco'(?). That would've been a great shot.