# Opium Bottle ?



## George Ingraham (Jan 28, 2011)

I think it is, but... ??


----------



## JOETHECROW (Jan 28, 2011)

George,..It looks just like one that Rockbot (Tony) sent us from Hawaii...How big is it?


----------



## George Ingraham (Jan 28, 2011)

Hi Joe.. 

 It is 2 1/4"


----------



## JOETHECROW (Jan 28, 2011)

George,...Here's the one Rocky sent to us....Looks pretty similar,...size is real close too.


----------



## George Ingraham (Jan 28, 2011)

Yours sure has a much more defined shape to it. 

 So is yours an old opium bottle then ?


----------



## JOETHECROW (Jan 29, 2011)

Yes George,....In fact I was trying to include the original wrapping paper that Tony sent it in, but resize issues forced me to crop it off. From everything I know these ARE opium vials, and if Rockbot knows it as an opium vial, then you can take it to the bank as well.


----------



## George Ingraham (Jan 29, 2011)

These are not especially rare are they ?


----------



## JOETHECROW (Jan 29, 2011)

George,..I don't often encounter them, but I think they're probably more common in areas where they used a lot of immigrant workers (Chinese)...So I would think they show up more often in the western United States,...etc...than they do in rural Pennsylvania.


----------



## George Ingraham (Jan 29, 2011)

Thanks for the help and info Joe .. 

 Appreciate it !


----------



## cordilleran (Jan 29, 2011)

For the weekend warriors who haven't lulled the day by "cracking a joint" in the dirty dens of Northeast Shan State, Burma,  opium is a sticky tar-like substance. Comes in tins that are unfolded to expose contents which are then scraped with a knife and placed in the Yen Tsiang or "smoking pistol". What was in those small "opium bottles"? Quinine. Lotta bad air these days as in times past.


----------



## ilovejake24 (Jan 29, 2011)

Morning George,
 Yeah, that's definitely an opium. We dig a ton of them in California. I have found quite a few of them in Chinese pits, as well as a lot of mining towns.


----------



## Rockhounder55 (Jan 29, 2011)

Here's one I found along an old railroad grade built in the 1860's. As we know, many Chinese immigrants were used for building the railroads. It's not in very good shape, and has been through a wildfire or two over the years.  ~Mike


----------



## Dansalata (Jan 29, 2011)

ALOT OF PEOPLE CALL THEM OPIUM BUT THEY TRULY ARE QUININE, OPIUM COULDNT BE EVEN EXTRACTED FROM A BOTTLE LIKE THATS [] A VERY COMMON MISCONCEPTION...


----------



## sloughduck (Jan 29, 2011)

I agree,tar like opium could not be put in these bottles or easily extracted.These are Chinese medicine bottles,some contained dry product,some fluids. I have been fighting this myth for years.I have dug dozens of these here in California over the years.





> ORIGINAL:  Dansalata
> 
> ALOT OF PEOPLE CALL THEM OPIUM BUT THEY TRULY ARE QUININE, OPIUM COULDNT BE EVEN EXTRACTED FROM A BOTTLE LIKE THATS []Â A VERY COMMON MISCONCEPTION...


----------



## rockbot (Jan 29, 2011)

Quinine is used for malaria I believe. Also used for painkilling and anti-iflammatory.
 We find quit a few of that type a bottles in Hawaii. Many different shapes and styles. I have some with hardened brown stuff still in them and some with a whitish crystalline powder. I even have opium pipes found with them.
 If you are interested I can post a few pics.
 No malaria in Hawaii by the way.
  I wonder what the painkilling component was?


----------



## Lordbud (Jan 30, 2011)

Let's just say if you've ever seen opium in person, there is no way these little vials held opium. These vials are super common in California to the point of being throw backs. Correct me if I'm wrong...but these vials are the source of one of bottle collecting's oldest myths along with "whittle marks" and the -mold seam- being an indicator of a bottle's relative age.


----------



## JOETHECROW (Jan 30, 2011)

Interesting thoughts and info everybody....food for thought. I remember seeing them in library books listed as opium bottles, so for 40 + years, I've known them as opium vials.


----------



## rockbot (Jan 30, 2011)

Like I stated: what was the pain killer component of quinine?
 They used it as a opiate for pain. I would too, working on the railroad all day. I think thats were the misconception is from. Technically its not opium
 but people like my grandma who's alive and well at 97 would tell us stories about its use among the chinese and later others. Opium was there understanding of it at the time because thats all they knew. It was the drug of choice and legal.


----------



## JOETHECROW (Jan 30, 2011)

> Let's just say if you've ever seen opium in person, there is no way these little vials held opium.


 
 After reading all these responses, It occured to me that a lot of cures and meds contained opium and it wasn't in it's "gummy" state....Couldn't that be the case w/ these? Just sayin'


----------



## surfaceone (Jan 31, 2011)

> Quinine is used for malaria I believe. Also used for painkilling and anti-iflammatory.
> We find quit a few of that type a bottles in Hawaii. Many different shapes and styles. I have some with hardened brown stuff still in them and some with a whitish crystalline powder. I even have opium pipes found with them.
> If you are interested I can post a few pics.


 
 Hau'oli Makahiki Hou Rocky,

 "The form of quinine most effective in treating malaria was found by Charles Marie de La Condamine in 1737. Quinine was isolated and named in 1820 by French researchers Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph BienaimÃ© Caventou. The name was derived from the original Quechua (Inca) word for the cinchona tree bark, "quina" or "quina-quina", which roughly means "bark of bark" or "holy bark". Prior to 1820, the bark was first dried, ground to a fine powder and then mixed into a liquid (commonly wine) which was then drunk. Large scale use of quinine as a prophylaxis started around 1850."

 "Quinine is very sensitive to ultraviolet light (UV) and will fluoresce in direct sunlight, due to its highly conjugated resonance structure (See Quinoline)" From wiki-quinine.

 Opium, I believe can be chemically manipulated or processed into varying forms. Morphine comes to mind, as does Laudanum, or Tincture of Opium.

 "Opium vial" seems to have more cachet than "Quinine vial." And, _*yes*_, I'd like to see some pictures.




From.






 Dr. McMunn's Elixir of Opium From.


----------



## rockbot (Feb 1, 2011)

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou Rocky,


 Opium, I believe can be chemically manipulated or processed into varying forms. Morphine comes to mind, as does Laudanum, or Tincture of Opium.

 "Opium vial" seems to have more cachet than "Quinine vial." 

 Mahalo Surf! 
 I'll post on another thread.[]


----------



## cordilleran (Feb 1, 2011)

One can drink admixtures of raw opium in a tea, or tinctures of opium cut with high alcohol content, or use alkaloids of opium in refinement, but the minimal amount of opium contained in one of these miniscule containers wouldn't get a fly high.


----------



## photolitherland (Feb 4, 2011)

While out in the deserts of Nevada this summer working around lots of abandoned mining camps I found a couple of these and lots of these "opium" viles that were broken. They are pretty cool imo.


----------

