Opium Pipe Bowls

Designed to diffuse the opium rather than burn it, these bowls attached to the pipe (as seen in the photograph). The orange bowl with Chinese characters is glazed ceramic, the other unglazed stoneware. The complete pipe is made of brass.

The bowls and pipe came to Aratoi as part of the Masterton Museum Collection, but we have no information on who may have given them to the museum between 1880 and 1954.

Opium pipe bowl, China, ceramic - glazed terracotta, green pigment

Small pipe bowl in glazed terracotta with Chinese insised characters filled in green.

Opium pipe bowl, China, ceramic - unglazed stoneware

An opium pipe bowl of unglazed stoneware.

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