Stefano Ricci Dual Flame Lighter — Lapis Lazuli / Gold

Stefano Ricci Dual Flame Lighter — Lapis Lazuli / Gold

Ancient cultures across Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley shared one practice regarding Lapis Lazuli: they reserved it for their finest objects. The stone traveled along trade routes that predated recorded commerce, valued more than gold by weight in some markets. Its blue — deep, opaque, and starred with the golden pyrite inclusions that scatter light across the surface — was the closest color available to the night sky, which is why Egyptian craftsmen ground it for cosmetics, set it in royal jewelry, and placed it in the burial chambers of pharaohs. Stefano Ricci sets real Lapis Lazuli into a gold finishing dual flame lighter. The stone's history is not lost on the choice.

Lapis Lazuli

The stone on this lighter is real Lapis Lazuli — mined from the same mountains in Afghanistan that supplied the ancient world, carrying the same unrepeatable distribution of deep blue calcite and golden pyrite that made the material impossible to replicate until modern synthetics that still fall short. The blue reads differently under different light sources: in daylight it absorbs and deepens; under incandescent light the pyrite flashes warm. On a lighter that produces its own light when opened, the stone is in its natural element.

Gold Finishing

The gold finishing on the lighter body reinforces the pairing that antiquity established. Blue and gold — Lapis and gold — is a combination with a history longer than most civilizations. On this lighter the relationship is precise: the warmth of the gold brings forward the warmth in the pyrite inclusions of the stone, and the depth of the blue prevents the gold from reading as excess. Two materials that have understood each other for six thousand years.

Dual Flame

The lighter produces two flame types from a single instrument: a soft, controlled flame for cigarettes and a torch flame for cigars. Both are immediately available. The dual flame format is the standard for Stefano Ricci's lighter collection — a working tool built to the same standard as the stone that accompanies it.

Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.