Research · Care · Cataloguing
A practical starting point for examining, dating, preserving and documenting vintage lighters with care. Every conclusion should reflect the certainty the evidence allows.
Begin with the whole object before looking for a name. Record its proportions, ignition system, fuel type, construction, decoration and any later repairs.
Marks may identify a maker, workshop, retailer, importer, patent or metal standard. Their position and method of application can be as useful as the wording.
A reliable date usually comes from several clues considered together: patents, hallmarks, model changes, advertisements, packaging and documented ownership.
Base metal, plating, lacquer, enamel, engine turning, casting and hand finishing each leave distinct evidence of how an object was made and used.
Preservation aims to stabilize an object and retain evidence. Polishing, replating and replacing parts can permanently remove historically useful surfaces.
Condition is not the same as appearance. Examine completeness, mechanical function, surface loss, corrosion, cracks, dents and evidence of repair.
Recognized models should be studied through patents, period catalogs, advertisements and securely documented examples—not reputation alone.
Reference Volume 01
Richard-Frédéric Dumont · De Borée · French and English, parallel text · 184 plates
Page scans from this volume are presented for research. Dates, names and attributions are those of the publication itself and have not been independently verified by the archive.
A shared vocabulary makes catalog records easier to compare. Terms should describe observable construction and condition rather than imply rarity or value.
Objects made by soldiers, prisoners of war and civilians from the debris of conflict, most often between 1914–1918 and 1939–1945. Lighters worked from cartridge cases are among the most common survivals.
Trench Art
“Trench art” describes objects made by soldiers, prisoners of war and civilians from the materials of conflict: spent artillery shell cases, shrapnel, bullet jackets, aircraft metal, wood, bone and salvaged equipment. The name comes from the First World War, but the practice is much older — battlefield metalwork was collected and reworked after earlier wars as well — and it continued long after 1918, through the Second World War and into peacetime souvenir production.
Lighters are among the most frequent survivals. Pocket and table models were assembled from brass or steel cartridge cases, matchbox covers were engraved with regimental names, and inkwells, vases and ashtrays were raised, chased and polished from large shell cases. Some pieces were made at the front, some in prisoner-of-war camps and hospitals, and a great many by commercial workshops at home and at the battlefields’ edge, sold to soldiers and visitors. Much of what survives was never made under fire, and a dealer’s or family’s story of a piece should be recorded as a claim, not as its history.
Timeline
Select a marker to read the entry. Use the arrow keys to move along the timeline.
1914Conflict
Trench warfare fixes large armies in place for long periods. Soldiers, held in one landscape for months, have access to spent brass, salvaged equipment and time between actions — the conditions in which soldier-made objects become widespread.
From the book
“In a book such as this there are, inevitably, many people from all walks of life who have generously given their help and advice, criticism, encouragement, company, and rare insight. A full list of how each person has aided my research would be a chapter in itself, and so I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks equally to all of the following who, each in their own way, made this book possible.
Paul Cornish (Imperial War Museum), Peter Liddle (Liddle Collection, The Second World War Experience Centre), Jenny Spencer-Smith and Oliver Buckley (National Army Museum), and the curators of innumerable Regimental Museums throughout the United Kingdom who kindly responded to my letters, questionnaires and requests for photographs. Marion Wenzel (Bosnia-Hercegovina Heritage Rescue, London and Sarajevo), Peter Doyle (University of Greenwich), Jay Winter and John Carman (Cambridge University), Jeremy Coote and Marius Kwint (Oxford University), Mark Dennis (Museum of the United Grand Lodge, London), John Schofield (English Heritage), Danny Miller, Suzanne Küchler, Hugh Clout, Mike Rowlands, Christopher Tilley, and Barbara Bender, all at University College London, Annette Becker (Paris X Nanterre), Thomas Compère-Morel and Marie-Pascale Prévost-Bault (L’Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne), Peter Aitken…”
Nicholas J. Saunders, “Trench Art: A Brief History & Guide, 1914–1939” — acknowledgements
Trench art is worked metal, not factory metal. Look for irregular chasing, hammer marks, tool lines that wander, and engraving whose letterforms vary — alongside whatever factory-turned parts remain, such as a cartridge case base with its head stamp intact.
The raw material usually dates the work more reliably than the decoration. Cartridge calibres, case seams, alloys and construction methods belong to identifiable periods; a piece said to be from one war but built on later cases deserves scepticism.
Names of battles, units and dates were often added later — sometimes decades later, for the souvenir trade or by a previous owner. An inscription is evidence that someone wanted the object to carry that story; it is not proof that the story is true. Record exactly what is written, where, and in what style.
Corrosion, dents, old solder repairs, replating and modern polishing all affect both value and evidence. Do not polish an inscription away to make an object shine: a bright but illegible piece has lost part of its history. Store dry and stable, as with any plated or engraved metalwork.
Objects made from ordnance may retain live components — sealed tubes, unfired rounds used as weights, fuzes kept as trophies. Never assume such an object is inert. Do not clean it internally, drill it or force any part; have it examined by the appropriate authorities before it is stored or displayed.
Reference files
Documents and PDFs for this topic will be filed here as they are added, under their original names. No documents have been filed yet.
Growing Reference Library
The first reference volume — 184 plates — is filed under “Famous models & their history”. Files and PDFs added later will retain their original names and be placed beside the guide topic they document.
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