Provincial Chinese Burden Bar, c. 1900

This square container was made over a hundred years ago to measure and hold a dou of rice, an ancient Chinese measurement. It is handcrafted with thin finger joints, iron-finished edges, and a gently arched handle. Marked by painted Chinese characters on each side, this antique measure...

This 19th-century hand-held wood press is carved with a large mold used for shaping festive mooncakes. Packed with lotus root, red bean, or other regional fillings, mooncakes are a d...

This late 19th century hand-held wood press is carved with a large mold used for shaping festive mooncakes. Packed with lotus root, red bean, or other regional fillings, mooncakes ar...

This late 19th century hand-held wood press is carved with a large mold used for shaping festive mooncakes. Packed with lotus root, red bean, or other regional fillings, mooncakes ar...

This late 19th century hand-held wood press is carved with a large mold used for shaping festive mooncakes. Packed with lotus root, red bean, or other regional fillings, mooncakes ar...

Crafted from lengths of split bamboo, this headrest enabled contour comfort, quite luxurious for 19th century, China. Lightweight and low-profile, it was the perfect accessory for a ...

The Chinese water pipes for smoking opium or tobacco could be beautifully decorated with enamel or be coated with precious materials such as ray skin. How were they used? 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...

Beautiful opium box decorated with reliefs with ideograms (one of the two refers to wealth), a chrysanthemum (symbol of longevity) and foliage. This silver m...

An old tool for making textiles in Japan. It's a very rare object. The light and shadow that pass through the even holes are very beautiful. A nice art ob...

Two pairs of two halves from the same bar, finely detailed, with pointed ears and eyebrows, opaque yellow face, opaque red on the mouth, nose, eyes and ears, translucent cobalt blue edges to the mouth, nose and ears, with translucent emerald green leaves above and between the translucent cobalt blue brows and eye line, translucent pink pupils, with translucent cobalt blie and opaque white snake scales below the face, in translucent cobalt blue matrix, cut in the lower part of a cartouche design. These rare heads might represent the Agathos Daimon, the tutelary deity of Alexandria, who was also identified with Serapis, the male counterpart of Isis-Thermouthis (who in turn was a graecisized form of the early snake harvest goddess Renenutet). In a statue of Isis-Thermouthis in Alexandria museum (no. 25773, ex-collection King Farouk I), reproduced in Gotten, Pharaonen, no. 151, the snake goddess...

Beautiful lacquered paper mache box decorated with imaginary animals (that look like cats) and plant motifs. The box seems to take the shape of a vege...

The bowl of the Vietnamese water pipe is jar-shaped. The metal handle allows easy carrying and moving of the object. The pipe stem that is normally places in the water tank, is missi...