Ethnographic Arms & Armour

Could it be an opium pipe?

Laotian Hmong pipe

Quote:

In the first link below is an auction result for another pipe like yours, described as "Laotian Hmong". My guess would be that it and yours both were originally purchased either by a late 20th century visitor who went to Thailand or Laos before 1975, or a tourist embarking from Thailand to visit the Golden Triangle after that date. The second link shows a couple of pipes of similar metal construction that I believe are fairly contemporary products too.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item...and-wood-opium

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item...-phoenix-pipes

The Laotian Hmong historically cultivated opium as a folk remedy for aches and pains for many generations, with such use mainly being among the elderly. However, having spent over a decade working in and around Thailand and Laos before retiring, I believe I can safely say that virtually all of the pipes like yours that I've encountered heretofore were made for the tourist trade.

First of all, there's the metal damper, or bowl, which seems to me would be self-defeating in its main purpose of dampening or cooling down the evaporates that are produced when the bowl is held over an alcohol flame long enough for the globule of opium on its tiny mouth to burst into flame. Reason suggests to me that the metal damper would heat as fast or faster than the opium, producing a superheated gust that the wooden connector, a poor conductor of heat, would have little or no effect on, leading to a pipe stem too uncomfortably hot to handle and gases damaging to the lungs. Then there's the implied use of solder to manufacture such ornate bowls and pipes, portending a lead problem for the smoker and even disintegration of the pipe in the heat of the lamp. I would think that for a habitual user, the opium pipe with maximum utility would be prized over ornamentation of any kind. No opium smoker I can fathom should be leaning back on a hard reed mat with head resting on a porcelain pillow with any idea in his (or her) head of admiring the beauty of his pipe.

Be that as it may, collectors who gave up smoking anything years ago sometimes have the time and money to buy opium paraphernalia worth doting on and not puffing on. In that spirit I include a shot of what inspires my occasionally doting. A Burmese bamboo pipe and somewhat rare ceramic bowl that looks to be made in China. The dragon mouthpiece is a mid-80's add-on carved to order in Taiwan.