Antique Bronze Burmese Quadrupeds 'Toe' Opium Weight, 140g. 18th/19th Century

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The Burmese mythical beast the Crested Quadrupeds, also known as 'Toe', a sacred animal from Burmese folklore that inhabited the Himalayan forest; is considered the rarest of opium weights, identified by the face of a lion, curling beard, deer-like horns, protrusions of the head, hooves, and the tail of a horse. A fabulous creature symbolic of purity, divine knowledge and cosmic breath.The mountain tribes of the Golden Triangle Region, Burma, Lao, and Thailand, originally intended the use of these miniature animal figures to weigh 'opium' during the 18th-19th centuries, a time when the forbidden Opium trade was flourishing in such occupied territories which straddled the Thai-Burmese border.The phrase 'Opium Weight' used to describe the small, curious-looking metal animal and bird figures is somewhat misleading - while the weights actually serve a much wider, more useful purpose; they were used to gauge the weight of daily items of commerce found in the Burmese market-place, such as food, raw materials, spices, musk, gemstone, metal, both ordinary and precious, and expensive medicine, all of which were sold in quanities determined by these weights. Items were measured by a beam hung with two baskets or trays, the correct weight was placed in one basket and the other basket filled with the desired material until the two baskets balanced. read more

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