Product Description

Antique Laos Betel Leaf Holder 1

Material: Silver
Style: Laos
Size: Height 10 cm
Order Number: TAB5

The basic ingredients of a betel quid are betel leaf, areca nut and lime powder. Gambir and tobacco may be added  to make it more fragrant.

The containers and implements included boxes of various shapes and sizes to store the betel nuts,  betel leaf holders for the already prepared betel quid, lime containers, hinged cutters, similar to scissors, to cut the hard areca nut, knives to cut the softer nuts, pounders to crush the nut, salve boxes to hold beeswax for the lips, spittoons, tobacco pouches and trays on which they all were displayed.

Betel leaf holders contained the already prepared betel quid, which was rolled in the leaf before being chewed.

This silver betel leaf holder is in the form of a horn of plenty, right-angled in cross-section with a trapezoid opening. On all four surfaces are decorations in repoussé technique with floral motifs and on the back a mythical animal.

19th – early 20th century.

According to Betel Chewing Traditions in South-East Asia, Dawn Rooney, Oxford University Press, 1993 (page 61), the horn-shaped silver betel holders are only found in Laos.

There are similar examples in Thai Silver and Nielloware, Paul Bromberg, River Books, 2019, page 85 and in Betel Chewing Traditions in South-East Asia, Dawn Rooney, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 62.

A similar one is shown in Betel and Miang, Vanishing Thai Habits, page 97.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).