Hintha Bird Bronze Opium Weight, Early 1900's.

$264.99 CAD

Hintha Bird Bronze Opium Weight, Early 1900's.

Certainly, the mountain tribes of the Golden Triangle (Burma, Laos, and Thailand) used the smallest ones for weighing opium, although they were actually made for everyday use, including all sorts of commerce. These weights were used on scales to weigh all sorts of foods, raw materials, and metals.

These weights have long attracted the attention of travellers to Burma and are nowadays collected by many collectors all over the world.

Most common opium weights are made of bronze and are in the form of a Hintha bird or Brahmani duck. There are also more rare weights in different shapes as lions or other animals.

The earliest Hintha weights found are thought to date from around the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They are set on a pumpkin-shaped base.

When the British occupied Burma in 1885, they introduced round and flat iron weights and from that time officially no more bronze weights were cast.

Item Code - BRO2B246WAR

Width: 3 1/4" Height: 2 5/8" Depth: 1 1/4" Weight: 218 g

We Also Recommend

Fountain-Nymphaeum, Bronze Male Figure and Gargoyle, Pompeii Italy,

Miguel Fernando Lopez (Milo) Bronze Sculpted Horse Stone Base, Signed.

Bronze Golf Sculpture, a Man In a Crouched Position Eyeing The Green.

Bronze Bird Sculpture, Gilt, Chinese, 19th Century.

Bust Casting Of a Tibetan Sherpa Man, Early 1900's.