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AI Appraisal
Description
I found this pipe at a Swap Meet, and have been trying unsuccessfully to find where it’s from and what it might be worth. It is very detailed and I believe is made of bone and has bone inlay. It has a removable pick in the middle, a removable cap one side and the pipe itself also can be taken off.
Category
Tobacciana
Medium
Bone
Distinguishing marks
only in Chinese/Japanese
Condition
Good
Size and dimensions of this item
lower container is 3"L x 1"W x 3"H, total height is 8"
Weight
9oz
eBay Auction Link
Price Paid (If known)
$40
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Re: Antique Chinese Smoking Pipe?
What you have here is a very nice Chinese water pipe. These are typically made of Paktong(Google these), an alloy consisting of nickel, zinc, and copper. These date around 1920-1930. Yours, however, is different. I would probably date it a bit earlier than that. All pipes of this sort were very late 1800s, to 1930s. Yours seems to have an inlay as you say, of bone. This was done on occasion, with some of the more expensive and fancier ones. They were used to smoke tobacco and are pretty common, but yours would be a less common one, due to it not being the typical Paktong water pipes that I see everywhere. It's hard to say what it's worth, people are ripping each other off all the time online and I haven't come in contact with one like this in person, yet.