What’s up with this?

My mom found this in a bunch of my great grandfathers old things recently. I can’t find a makers mark or anything like that. What do y’all think?

 

Sideways view of a Chinese tobacco pipe set, photo taken with an Apple device

 

You are a wizard harry. Thanks.

 

check for marks could be silver?

 

tobacco ? funny names they give to such stuff these days ...coughcough...
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/chinese-metal-opium-pipe-518-c-4cf432a894

 

It appears you have a Chinese opium pipe, https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-lot/20th-C.-Chinese-Brass-Opium-Pipe_BDD44DFB31

 

Thanks for the flip

 

I think we've had a thread on these before; my recollection is that there was general agreement that although they are generally sold as opium pipes, they are really Chinese tobacco pipes. My memory could be faulty, of course, and I don't have any knowledge of these, or opinion on them myself.

 

There are many misidentified things listed on the internet...
https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-lot/Copper-Brass-Opium-Pipe-on-Chain_629DEDA8A3/

 

You can't smoke opium in a pipe like the OP's. (or with a bosun's whistle BTW) Opium pipes are VERY different.

 

it's a brass water pipe.......often found where opium is being smoked...but it's not an opium pipe...



Opium set ...with standard pipe...



left...smoking opium
right....smoking tobacco...

 

described as
"
A Chinese man sits smoking an opium pipe. Wood engraving after E. Ronjat.
Ronjat, Etienne Antoine Eugène, 1822- "
but I do not know that collection.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/eyrsj4tz

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Étienne_Antoine_Eugène_Ronjat
is there an old photo somewhere ?
https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/DAE-BA053287

 

Nothing to do with opium!
But the word is more... Appealing for getting buyers

 

I still can't figure out how you could smoke tobacco in it either. help, please.

 

It is a water pipe, it must work as a bong!
It contains too a lidded compartment for storing your tobacco, and a small rod to clean it.
About opium and non opium pipes:
https://theopiumpipe.com/what-is-and-is-not-an-opium-pipe/

 

Of course this is BS, first of all, anyone smoking opiates isn't going to be sitting upright in a chair! Also, it can't be smoked without an accessory - an open flame, i.e. the lamp. You can't just put the stuff in a pipe. Opium is gummy & the consistency of thick syrup so it has to be smeared onto a surface and heated to vaporize. If you put it in a conventional or even a Chinese water pipe as per the illustration you wouldn't be able to "smoke" it because it would clog the pipe.

as @kyratango said above, introducing the mystique of opium into a sales come-on is an excellent way to sell these things and other non-opiate paraphernalia!

 

very good, thanks a lot. now it makes sense.
my opium experience is limited to one morning when a guy rolled two joints at work with a special lump of hashish consisting of 20 % opium and 80 % purest Afghan. and this at 7 a.m..... I never stopped laughing till midday.