Intoxicating Antiques

Due

to the eradication of opium smoking in the mid-20th century, antique opium pipes, lamps and the sundry trappings that surrounded the habit in China and Southeast Asia are now quite rare. Only since the early 1990s has more-lax enforcement of laws in China allowed these treasures to be traded as antiques.

Bangkok has become a magnet for antiquities from all over Asia, where the knowledgeable shopper can find anything from genuine Burmese images of the Buddha to Tibetan monastic furniture. Of course, there are also plenty of cleverly forged fakes so, as in most Asian antiquities markets, caveat emptor. With opium habiliments, shop owners don't always deceive their customers on purpose. Many are clueless as to what is real and what is a reproduction. For instance, if an "opium pipe" has a bowl made from wood or resin or anything else that's flammable, chances are it's a very cheap fake. Also, most pipes made of bone are reproductions, as animal bone was considered unsuitable for pipes.

Many countries still have laws forbidding the importation of opium pipes, though the briskness of the trade in antique opium pipes suggests those laws aren't being rigidly enforced. Opium lamps, however, are far more likely to clear customs. They are smaller than oil lamps used for lighting, and an opium lamp never has a mechanical wheel to advance the wick—this was done by hand with a pair of tweezers. It is unusual to find an opium lamp that has its original glass funnel intact. Most have been fitted with replacements made from tea glasses or even liquor bottles. If an opium lamp sports a glass funnel that looks like an upside-down glass with a hole drilled in the bottom, it's probably just that.

Here are three reputable Bangkok shops where antique opium paraphernalia can be purchased: Lampion and Cheng's Collection, both in the River City shopping complex next to the Royal Orchid Sheraton, and Kilin, at the Oriental Place on Charoen Krung Road, Soi 38.