Interlocking Coin Opium Lamp

By the 18th century, opium use had become as central to Chinese social life as taking tea or smoking tobacco, fostering a subculture rich with its own customs, traditions, and exquisitely crafted accoutrements.

This antique opium lamp dates to the early 20th century and was used to channel the precise amount of heat needed to vaporize the bit of opium placed in a pipe and held over the lamp. The molded glass shade acted as a chimney to funnel heat and shielded the flame burning from the central oil chamber and wick. The glass shade sits in a round brass base decorated with an openwork design of interlocking coins, a motif for wealth.

Post-Cultural Revolution campaigns to eradicate opium use saw the widespread destruction of opium accessories, making this lamp quite the rare find.

Glass shade has a hairline crack.