Crystal 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 19th-century opium lamp, hand-crafted with a perforated bronze base and cut-crystal dome, was designed to regulate the amount of opium smoke inhaled. The top opening acted as a chimney, channeling the precise amount of heat needed to vaporize the bit of opium placed in a pipe and held over the lamp. Post-Cultural Revolution campaigns to eradicate opium use successfully stopped production of related accessories, making this lamp quite rare.