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Some were also used in restaurants or cafeterias. Especially sought after are lighters manufactured in Arts&Crafts and Art Nouveau periods by Elkington & Company (UK), WMF (German, Austria, Poland, France), Christofle (France) or Kaiserzinn (Germany).
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The base metal was often cooper or zinc alloy (pewter). Silver-plated cigar lighters were made for those who could not afford these made of solid silver. Smoking sets consisted of a tray, usually a cigar cutter, 4-6 ashtrays and cigar lighter with one to up to five wands.Īs table cigar lamps were intended initially for the wealthiest it was a natural practice to make these lighters of solid silver (mainly sterling. Most of the cigar lighters were meant to carry and pass around the table so they have convenient handles, but others were more stationary and have at least one wick-holder (called wand) to transfer the flame to one's cigar (or pipe), this often with spiral-fluted handle or one decorated as a flame or a simple sphere. They were made by top class silversmiths including Georg Jensen (Denmark), Tiffany & Co (USA) and a whole British makers. Table cigar lighters collectors pay attention not only to the style, craftsmanship but also to the maker of the lighter. More sophisticated figural lighters (for instance laying moon, wild animals, grotesque or exotic figures, castles, ships etc.) are sought after by collectors and these with a lot of fine detail command very high prices counted in thousands of EUR. Popular are oriental forms like dragons often combined with horn (mainly buck, antelope and deer antler) handles and gyroscopic mount so that the flame is always pointing up. Lighters with a lid, instead of a simple wand, are chained to the lighter base in order to avoid the lid to be lost.
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Traditional shapes include urn or vase - some of them were sold with matching ashtrays that could be put under the cigar lighter to save space on the table. There was also a broad range of novelty shapes like hunting horn, pyramid, spherical bomb or flaming grenade. Cigar lighters (also called cigar lamps) were manufactured in various shapes although the most popular forms are of a Roman oil lamp and Aladdin's Lamp with snake handle (see pictures).