England and the Chinese Qing Empire were engaged in some difficult trade relations. The English imported tea, silk, porcelain, and other items from China. China, in return, was pretty much self-sufficient and only interested in English silver. With their silver supply rapidly dwindling (because the English have a love affair with tea), they went looking for something else the Chinese would be interested in in trading. And in their Bengal colonies they found opium.

There was a big difference in the smoking of opium between the elite members of societies and poorer workers. The very rich often had a private smoking room in their own house and a servant who prepared the opium for them. Opium dens catered to all layers of society but differed highly in furnishings and attendants. High-end opium dens had elaborate beds, intricately carved opium kits and many female attendants who prepared the pipes. In cheap opium dens, smokers lay on a mat or shared beds and brought their own kits. Often attendants helped to prepare the pipes because the preparation of opium for vaporization was a bit difficult. These lower-end establishments catered more often to foreigners than high-end ones.

 What remains of opium smoking are mostly old, private opium kits brought from Indochinese colonies. These small and ofter overlooked items do carry a lot of history. The small opium boxes of the 19^th century – generally around 5 cm high, 5 cm long and 2 cm wide- were often made of brass and decorated with multicolored cloisonné enamel. These boxes could be of various shapes: round, oval, rectangular or polygonal. The cloisonné designs could depict different themes: objects from the scholar’s desk (a bronze censer, a brush pot with pens, scrolls), flowers (Chrysanthemum-flower, Magnolia) & vases, animals (bats, lions, dragons, phoenix…), clouds etc. 

The representations of the scholar’s desk utensils refer to scholarly virtues and the wish for longevity.  Flowers like the Chrysanthemum represent nobility, the Magnolia in turn gives shape to the qualities of nobility and womanly beauty. Various animal species are loaded with meanings in China. The dragon symbolizes the balance of all things in the universe, or he refers to the Emperor, the phoenix can be associated with the Empress, the bat stands for prosperity, the lion can indicate power and good fortune. Clouds, common in Chinese art, represent a good omen and good fortune. The motif conveys also inner peace. 

These metal objects can be decorated in different ways. They can be gilded, engraved, or covered with enamel.  Adding enamel adds color to the shine of the polished metal. There are three basic techniques for applying enamel onto metal surfaces: cloisonné enamel, champlevé enamel and painted enamel. In the first case, a composition of pulverized multicolored glass is fused within wire cells. In the champlevé technique, the enamel is fused into hollowed-out fields or grooves. Finally, in the case of painted enamel the applied paint air-dries to a hard, usually glossy substance. 

The glass paste that was used was initially colorless and consisted mainly of quartz sand, lead, soda, kaolin, feldspar, borax, salpeter, sodium and magnesium. Colors were obtained by adding metals or metal oxides. For example, the addition of cobalt produced blue, tin gave a white hue, copper oxide provided a green color, manganese peroxide colored the glass paste purple etc. 

The technique of enameling of metal objects in China provided artistic delights from the Early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) onwards. Patronage at the imperial court gave a boost to this form of applied art. Enameled metal was thus initially reserved for a social elite. Yet, objects with enamel decoration also appeared in important religious contexts, for example in temples of Buddhists, Daoists and Confucians. The enamel lent itself to a wide range of decorative motifs. In the 15^th century, stylized lotus flowers and scrolls were very popular. Of course, the traditional representations of dragons and phoenixes continued to appear. During the Wanli-period (1573-1620) the enamels depicted more elaborate scenes with humans and animals in landscapes as well as geometric patterns. The eighteenth century was a period of innovation in the field of enameled metalwork. Enamel decorated not only tableware or vessels, but from now on also three-dimensional figurines of people and animals, bird cages, hat stands and even carriage equipment. The important production centers of enameled objects were Beijing, Yangzhou and Guangzhou. The Chinese cloisonné’s lost their finesse and charm during the 19^th century. This was due to the loss of court patronage and the increasing demand for such products by Western Europeans in the second half of the 19^th century.

The heated opium was placed in the lidded well of the pipe. The smoker could inhale the fumes through this pipe. Most water pipes have a holder for storing the maintenance tools, such as a little brush, a spike and tweezers. The water pipes could easily be smoked while sitting down, unlike the regular opium pipes. Those were smoked while lying down. 

Opium smokers used opium lamps to make the vaping and inhaling of the opium easier. These lamps which contained spirits in their base, were specifically designed to channel an exact amount of heat upward through funnel-shaped chimneys. The smoker held the pipe-bowl of his opium pipe above the lighted lamp. This caused the small dose of opium contained in the bowl to vaporize, allowing the smoker to inhale the vapors of the drug. The opium lamps could be crafted from brass, silver or paktong (an alloy of zinc, copper, and nickel). The metal parts were often decorated with cloisonné enamel. The chimneys of the opium lamps were made from glass.

(1) Credit for the introduction : Seres Collection

https://winkel.serescollection.com/blogs/news/a-short-but-important-history-on-opium-dens

https://boutique.serescollection.com/blogs/news/a-short-but-important-history-on-opium-dens

https://shop.serescollection.com/blogs/news/a-short-but-important-history-on-opium-dens