Water Pipe

ClassificationsTools and Equipment-smoking equipment-pipes & pipe components

Date19th to 20th Century

Made AtChina, Asia

MediumBamboo and metal

Dimensionsa,b: 8 7/8 × 6 3/4 × 1 3/8 in. (22.5 × 17.1 × 3.5 cm)

Credit LineAnonymous Gift

Object number2020.8.35a,b

DescriptionThis is a water pipe dating from 19th to 20th century China. Pipes such as this would have been used to smoke tobacco. First imported to the country around 1611, smoking tobacco was a common practice throughout much of China as early 1636 when the first Ming edicts were made to ban smoking in public. Smoking only gained ground in China, however, and in addition to being consumed by itself it was occasionally mixed with opium, mostly in the southern coastal provinces. Water pipes were introduced to China in the 18th century from Turkestan and allowed smokers to filter out some of the impurities in the smoke. By the turn of the 19th century there were as many as 200 water pipe workshops in the Lanzhou Province alone. Water pipes were primarily made from brass though other mediums such as bamboo were used.

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