L220mm, China
Chopstick has been around in China for more than 3000 years; there has been many material used for making them, wood, bamboo, ivory, bone, lacquered, silver, gold, jade and of course the recent plastic and stainless steel version. It is commonly believed that silver is used as a material for its ability to detect poison. Perhaps it is the tarnishing of the silver from the sulphur in arsenic that made the name of the silver chopstick. Please dont be alarmed by the tarnished silver on this pair of chopstick, it is due to natural oxidation from its age and not from any poison. The legend of the silver chopstick goes like this; the famous politician of the Zhou dynasty Jiang Zi Ya was once only interest in fishing (with a straight hook) and nothing else. His wife got fed up with his idleness and decided to kill him and to marry someone else. One day as usual, he came home empty handed after fishing, his wife had prepared a spiked up meat dish for his supper, just as he tried to grab the meat a bird flew in and packed on his hand. The bird did it again and again as he tried to go for the meat, sensing something is out of the ordinary, he pretend to chase the bird and left the house. Up a hill, the bird told him only to eat with the two sticks on the ground where it stood. Jiang return home and pick up the meat with the sticks as he was told, smoke appears and his wife fainted. His eating sticks got famous and everyone started eating with chopsticks. The moral of the story …. men, dont go fishing too often + remember to bring at least a fish home (even if you have to buy it from the supermarket).
Mountain Folkcraft 