Chinese Tobacco / Opium Pipe

[skoetting]

My sister was given this pipe by her Mother in Law who traveled extensively throughout Asia as a military wife.  She said she purchased it in the 1960's.   Can anyone tell me anything about it.  What is it made of.  Where is it from, who made it, and when?  Can someone translate the writing on the pipe?  And of course the 1000$ question .. what is its value.   Lots of questions and looking for answers  LOL... sure could use some help.

[mart]

There are some here that could probably help you but I am not one of them !!  Looking at the pics,, can you explain how all the object fit together ??  Looking at the bottom,,almost looks like a leather of some sort !!  What does it feel like ??  Metal, ceramic or what ??

[fancypants]

Could you please post another image , one that shows the entire 'pipe' portion of your set , skoetting ?

It does appear to be a 'smoking kit' , BTW .

[skoetting]

Sure.. Here is a picture of the entire pipe... sorry about that ... thought I had picked out that picture but apparently didn't.

[skoetting]

This picture shows a bit bonzy at the stem but its the lighting.  Its silver all the way....

[skoetting]

NO. Its silver metal all over.   

[mart]

Oh !!  Guess those are just light scratches on the bottom !!

[KC]

You might want to search antique silver opium water pipe or silver opium pipe.

Can you please tell me the dimensions of the piece?  Yours appears rather large for one!

Here's an interesting tidbit for you to read
http://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/silver-opium-pipe-collectors-corner.php

[KC]

Can you please post a clearer and close up picture of the mark on the bottom of the pipe?  Thank you! 

[talesofthesevenseas]

These are often mistaken as opium pipes, but it's a regular tobacco pipe. You can see examples of actual opium pipes here: http://www.opiummuseum.com/index.pl?pics&59 I wrote about an opium den in part of my book and so I researched this very carefully. The whole shape of the pipe is wrong for opium use, since you have to heat a ball of opium over a source of heat (usually a flame intensified by a glass cone) and that requires a long, tubular pipe with a knob like bowl to heat the opium. Check out the old images here of people smoking opium and you'll see what I mean: http://www.opiummuseum.com/index.pl?pics&60

[skoetting]

Which is why I called it a tobacco / opium pipe.. open to all possibilities.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Yup! I saw that!