S.T. Dupont Maki-E Line 2 "Perfect Ping" — Dragon
There are objects made with precision. And then there are objects made with time. The S.T. Dupont Maki-E Line 2 Dragon is the second kind — a lighter that carries within it a technique more than twelve centuries old, executed by the hands of master artisans in Japan, and completed by fire.
The Art of Maki-E
Maki-e — literally "sprinkled picture" — is a Japanese lacquerware technique with origins in the 8th century. In its execution, a lacquer motif is first painted by hand onto the surface. While the lacquer is still wet, gold, silver, or other metallic powders are applied through a fine bamboo tube, settling into the design with an exactness no mechanical process can replicate. The piece is then placed in a cedar box to dry — slowly, carefully — before being polished by hand with magnolia leaf, charcoal, camellia, and nettle. The result is a surface of extraordinary depth: warm, luminous, and unrepeatable. No two pieces emerge identical from this process.
Wajimaya Zenni
S.T. Dupont partnered with Wajimaya Zenni Inc., master lacquerware artisans based in Japan, to execute the Maki-E collection. Each piece in the collection bears the "Zenni" signature — a mark of origin, of authorship, and of the singular hand that made it. Wajimaya Zenni's tradition is rooted in the Wajima lacquerware school, one of the most distinguished in Japan, known for the depth and durability of its work.
The Dragon
In Japanese tradition, the dragon — Ryū — is not a creature of destruction but of power, authority, and the movement of heaven and water. It symbolizes strength, prosperity, and the harmony of opposing forces. On the Line 2, the Dragon is rendered in gold powder and palladium against a rich brown lacquer ground — each scale caught in metallic relief, the form commanding the full surface of both faces of the lighter. This is not a decorative motif. It is a declaration.
The Line 2
The Line 2 is S.T. Dupont's defining lighter — the piece against which all others in the Maison's range are measured. Its double yellow flame and the crystalline "perfect ping" that sounds at the opening of the cap have been the acoustic and functional signatures of S.T. Dupont craftsmanship for decades. On the Maki-E Dragon, the Line 2 becomes the vessel for a tradition older than the Maison itself.
Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.
