Sold for A$190
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 360 mm long. Late 18th to 19th Century.
Very Good. (N/A). Has a woven cane type ring around the shaft. Wood is a bit discoloured but pretty solid throughout. A bit of deterioration at the end of the wide part holding the scale tray. Some knocks and so forth. 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: $60-80
