Product Description

Lip Salve Container 2 – Laos

Material: Silver
Style: Laos
Size: Height 4.5 cm, Diameter 4.5 cm
Order Number: MHSLSC2

Dawn Rooney in Betel Chewing Traditions in South-East Asia (page 55) quotes a European diplomat in 1871 after a dinner hosted by the Governor of Siem Reap, ‘there was music and dancing and then the Governor exhibited his betel-boxes and other paraphernalia…Articles included… a little silver box…containing a perfumed ointment, used by the native noblemen to anoint their lips and nostrils’.

The salve resembled beeswax and was used to prevent stinging from the areca nut when chewing betel.  It kept the betel nut chewer’s lips moist while chewing the betel quid. It also stopped the betel juice sticking to the lips.

It is made of silver. The body and lid are decorated by small ledges. The overlapping lid and body are connected by silver loops. The top of the lid has a raised floral motif of fine quality.

A similar one is shown in Betel Chewing Traditions in South-East Asia, Dawn Rooney, Oxford University Press, 1993 on page 56.

19th – early 20th century.

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