Opium pipes in London

In 1899, Earl’s Court offered interested Londoners the chance to pay 6d to see a Hong Kong ‘opium smoking parlour’, filled with ‘living Chinaman’ and ‘true to every detail’. This reflected an ongoing fascination for the Chinese habit of smoking opium – a habit that had been partly encouraged by the British East India Company and then condemned by British missionaries – and merrily ignored the fact the British themselves had been consuming opium for decades.

The Chinese tradition of smoking looked and felt very different though, and that’s partly because it was so deeply ingrained into society, a ritual to be enjoyed alongside tea and nicotine with a rich material culture, lavish paraphernalia and its own customs, traditions and symbolic meaning. This is explored in an extraordinary exhibition of Chinese opium pipes at Maggs Bros bookshop in Berkeley Square, which I have written about for the Independent on Sunday.

It features a unique collection of 19th-century Chinese pipes and related material that demonstrate the full complexity of the Chinese relationship with opium, as can be seen in some of the following images – and these barely scratch the surface of the incredible collection that can be seen at Berkeley Square from June 5 to the end of July.

Field of opium poppies

Jar for storing opium

Chinese opium smoker

Postcard of opium smoker from Vietnam

Bowl for smoking opium

Opium pipe

Smoker with pipe and tools

Opium pipe

Opium pipe

Bowl for opium pipe

Pipes being burnt by anti-opium reformers

Bowl for opium pipe

Lamp used for preparing and smoking opium

Tray for carrying opium tools

Pink pills for pale people – opium cure

Box for storing opium with erotic carving – opium was seen as an aphrodisiac and was originally smoked in brothels

Bowl for smoking opium

Opium pipe

Preparing a pipe

Tools for preparing opium

Opium pipe

Opium smoker with cat – pets often became addicted to the opium fumes