Dunhill, Hobnail Rollagas Lighter

[Acquire from Dunhill]

A design from the 1950s that never needed a second version.

Made in Switzerland · Palladium-plated brass · Hobnail pattern

Why it's here

Dunhill introduced the Rollagas in the 1950s, and it has hardly been touched since: a slim bar of metal, a roller under the thumb, a cap that closes with a click. The hobnail pattern, a grid of tiny cut pyramids, gives the fingers something to grip and the light something to play on. It is one of the few objects a man can carry daily for forty years and then hand over in working order.

The object

The body is brass plated in palladium, a bright white metal of the platinum family that does not tarnish. Rolling the wheel strikes a flint and lights the gas, and a small lever on the side sets the flame. It is 6.4 centimetres tall and pleasingly heavy for its size.

Living with it

It belongs in the pocket of a dinner jacket or a tailored overcoat, and it lights a cigarette, a cigar or the candles on a table equally well. Refill the gas when the flame drops and change the flint once in a long while. Dunhill services them, which is why so many old ones still work.

Origin: Made in Switzerland
Material: Palladium-plated brass
Mechanism: Rollagas, flint and gas
Size: 6.4 × 2.4 cm

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