Sold for A$110
Banjo Opium Scales, Brass Tray and Weight, Bone Sliding Scale. Wooden Case.. Chinese. Scales. Banjo Opium Scales, Brass Tray and Weight, Bone Sliding Scale. Wooden Case. About 345 mm long. 18th to 19th Century.
Good. (N/A). Ring around shaft is rusty with a hole. End which holds the scale is chewed at the end. Some fine splits. Discoloured throughout. The vendor has collected any of these available from the Ballarat region over the past 40 years. They were reviewed by a Chinese scholar who suggested they were late 18th to 19th Century and originally used to weigh opium shipped by merchants contracted to the British East India Company. Useful items that ultimately found their way to the Ballarat Goldfields with the influx of Chinese miners from the 1850s onwards. Sometimes referred to as opium scales, but also known as gold scales. Estimate: $50-75
