ETHAS 065750

Chine nécessaire à opium, mallette

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065750
Opium kit for Westerners
China
20th century
Leather, wood, metal, glass
Acquired with the help of SAMEG in 2009
The custom-made case contains a collapsible pipe and a burner, and the layout needed for the delicate preparation of opium: spoon, scraper, pipe cleaner, seven needles and an opium box, along with an ingenious folding oil lamp and its reservoir.

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Colonial power and opium

Driven by European colonialism, opium smoking had devastating effects on all classes of society in China and neighbouring countries in the 19th century before it became fashionable among Western intellectuals. Wealthy smokers left the delicate preparation of the opium pipe to the attendants and settled comfortably on a special bed to smoke.

Opium smoker, Java, 1879.

Opium smoker, Java, 1879. Alfred Bertrand collection © MEG Inv. ETHPH 411709

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