Author Topic: Antique Chinese Opium pipes  (Read 8192 times)

Qianlong

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Antique Chinese Opium pipes
« on: May 17, 2012, 01:30:23 am »
Hello everyone, i'm new to this forum, i read some posts, and it seems very interesting to be part of this community,
i am a collector of chinese antiques, and i'm also a seller on Ebay,
I Have in my belonging a set of Antique chinese opium pipes,
Those pipes are very rare pieces and made from Gold/silver/niello/black lacquer/jade ends,
i know ebay has a policy againts drugs, and i agree to it, but those pipes has a very great value as antiques,
i have started to build my own website, but i think it will take time until people will actualy be able to get to it,
i was wondering if you have any advice about where i can sell those pipes at, since i really need the money
i also wanted to know if the price i am offering them is too low?
please check the photos for the opium pipes in this link:

http://www.realrareantiques.com/product-category/opium-pipes/

fancypants

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Re: Antique Chinese Opium pipes
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2012, 03:14:28 pm »
I've seen many ornate/fancy antique opium pipes for sale through the years , but never have I seen any with such (high) prices as yours ... (I'm assuming that the prices are in USD , but your website did not allow me to actually 'go to the check out' to verify this) .
" Methinks me the 'mental' in sentimental .... "

aDawn

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Re: Antique Chinese Opium pipes
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2012, 08:49:25 pm »
Wow! I know next to nothing about opium pipes, but as an outsider looking in those prices seem crazy high! Haha, though, like I said I know nothing about them. If those prices are normal it must be an expensive hobby!

Qianlong

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Re: Antique Chinese Opium pipes
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2012, 09:04:04 pm »
hey Adawn, i understand it seems like an high price,
but its all depend what you are looking at, Chinese antiques those days worth a lot of money,
yes if you go to ebay you can find many good deals (95% of them are not real antiques) but what you pay is what you get.

those are very fancy pipes, one of them is imperial, and has the 5 claw dragon, whoever was caught in china during the Qing dynasty with an item carry the 5 claw dragon, and wasnt from the imperial family, was put to death.
The other pipes are very fancy as well, they are all marked by the artist.
i have uploaded a picture from the book "The chinese encounter with Opium" there is a similar pipe to one of mine.

i am very intrested in auctions, and been looking everywhere to see opium pipes similar to this,
but it seems like no one have it, the only place i came across with similar, are in the books or in private collection.

if you compare between the prices in Bonhams for opium pipes you can easly see that much less fancy pipes sell in prices like this.
i believe if it will get to the big auction houses it will sell for a lot more then what i am offering.

fancypants, can you please try the checkout again, since when i checked it it was working fine,
and i would love to hear some feedback about the website..
Thanks