Lines, Leather And Lighters

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ST Dupont built their reputation originally making heavy duty trunks and suitcases; leather goods. They combined the finest materials with meticulous craftsmanship to produce objects that were beautiful, luxurious but always functional. In 1996 ST Dupont introduced the Vertigo collection, a line of pens and lighters combining brass and fine hand done Chinese Lacquer in a grid pattern of red tones from dark deep purple to almost burnt umber.

 

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To hold the lighter they also introduced a fine case, made of very heavy fine grained leather, fully lined then hand stitched and molded.

 

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Sliding the top off the case presents the first glimpse of the lighter, in this case part of the ST Dupont Ligne 2 lighters (there was also a Gatsby model).

 

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The lighter began life as a single solid block of brass that is then machined before a guilloche pattern or Chinese Lacquer is applied. After final assembly the lighters are tested for function as well as a distinctive "ping" or "clink" when the cap is opened. If it doesn't look right, work right or even sound right it never gets out of the door.

 

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The pens were fashioned in a similar Chinese Lacquer patter and came in two sizes, the standard and an X-Large version as shown here. The nibs are 18K gold in a semi wrap around format and are always extremely smooth. The caps are slip on that self center during the last quarter inch or so of travel and seat with a reassuring click.

 

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Here you can see all three together.

 

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Next time I'll look at another Ligne 2 lighter, a Black Chinese Lacquer version done in a cigar band motif.

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The "Cigar Band" lighter takes its name from the shape of the brass area between the lid and the body, an oval area with rectangular extensions on each side.

 

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The body as always begins life as a solid brass block before being machined. In this case the machined areas were filled with black Chinese Lacquer.

 

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This is a much simpler design and honestly has gotten far more pocket time then any of my other Dupont lighters. Often I carry either one of my black Chinese Lacquer Montparnasse pens or a standard sized Gastby, a black Lacquer Fidelio or the Ellipsis as seen in the next pictures with it.

 

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The Ellipsis is a large pen and the lightest ST Dupont pen I own, being one of the few resin based models they made. In this picture you can see the Gatsby on the far left, the Ellipsis third from the left and the Fidelio fifth from the left.

 

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[kaisede]

NIce !!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Dupont lighters were always the best...the lighter for the man who had everything, including a Dinner's Club card.

 

That was the first credit car, use oddly to Dine with....In upper class joints, where one wore a suit and tie or a Jacket and tie, and the wife had gotten her hair done for it.

 

That was way back in the '50's.

 

Even as a kid of the '50's who didn't smoke, I wanted one of them.... :embarrassed_smile: still don't have one.

 

Oddly, I don't ever remember anyone using a leather pouch for one, back then, or even later...but I've been hanging with the Bic crowd lately, where a Zippo is big stuff. :blink:

 

Whoops. :hmm1:

 

I did have a few Ronson's though.

 

They got Copperfiel'ed, even faster than a Zippo.

Edited January 28, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[art_ok]

Dupont lighters were always the best...

 

I tried St Dupont but did not like it. My opinion is that Corona Old Boy is still better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Gmx3ZrjdM

 

Does Dupont do pipe lighters?

[jar]

Dupont lighters were always the best...

 

I tried St Dupont but did not like it. My opinion is that Corona Old Boy is still better. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=i4Gmx3ZrjdM

 

Does Dupont do pipe lighters?

 

Almost all ST Dupont lighters can be ordered with either the standard jet, a dual wide flame jet for cigars or an angled jet for pipes.

 

Next we will look at a different model, the small size Ligne 1 lighter.

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And now let's pause and talk about fakes, and that all of us can get caught by the Fake Trade.

 

I was over on eBay and happened to see an auction with a "make an offer" option for some lighters reported to come from an Estate Sale. Interestingly it included both the Vertigo and a Cigar Band lighter we discussed above. I really, really like the Vertigo lighter, the seller had great ratings and so made an offer for it, and the offer was accepted.

 

Well today it arrived and I immediately saw that it was not an ST Dupont but rather one of the replicas that are sold.

 

I contacted the seller and can say that the seller has been great to deal with. As soon as I contacted the person they said send it back and they would refund the payments. I did take some pictures though and the differences were clear when you saw the real and replica side by side. If you did not know what to look for it would be close enough to fool most anyone.

 

So here is a lesson in humility, that even those who know what to look for can get fooled at times.

 

In this picture the real ST Dupont Vertigo is on the right.

 

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Note the differences in the Chinese Lacquer work, the depth and also the detail.

 

Look at the engraving, see how deep and clear it is on the authentic ST Dupont.

 

Look at the sizes, the replica is just a hair different.

 

Weight was almost identical, within rounding errors.

 

The case that came with it is also a replica. Note the size of the stitching, and that the real one has small tight double stitching while the fake has larger single stitching.

 

Inside the lighter there were more telltale signs. Real Dupont flints did not fit, the striker wheel shaft was just a post and the wheel itself just driven by friction while on the real one the shaft has flat spots the positively position and retain the striker wheel. There were machining marks inside the cap and on both the visible and underside of the parts of the lighter. The fill cap was not painted inside to show which fuel to use, and the threading that normally screws into the refill itself was rough and uneven.

 

The replica fake market is for real, and it is getting harder and harder, particularly when working from pictures, to tell the real products from the fakes.