Stefano Ricci Dual Flame Lighter — Tiger Eye / Gold

Stefano Ricci Dual Flame Lighter — Tiger Eye / Gold

Most stones are static. They reflect light consistently; they read the same in a photograph as they do in the hand. Tiger Eye is the exception. The internal structure of the stone — parallel fibers of crocidolite mineral embedded in quartz — creates a moving optical phenomenon: a band of luminescence that shifts across the surface with the angle of view, narrowing and widening, brightening and dimming, as the stone is tilted in the hand. It is the same mechanism that gives certain silk fabrics their sheen, and it shares with silk the property of being more interesting in motion than at rest. On a lighter that is opened, closed, and handled multiple times a day, the stone is always changing.

Tiger Eye

The stone on this lighter is real Tiger Eye — golden to reddish-brown in tone, with the chatoyancy that defines the material and distinguishes it from any stone that merely resembles it. The optical band does not photograph well; it has to be seen in three dimensions and in motion to register its full effect. The precise width and intensity of the band varies with the specific distribution of fibers in the stone, which means each lighter presents the effect slightly differently. In direct light the band is intense and narrow; in diffuse light it softens and spreads. In the light of the flame the stone has produced, it does something else again.

Gold Finishing

Tiger Eye and gold are in the same tonal family — both warm, both carrying that golden-amber quality that reads as authoritative without being cold. The gold finishing does not compete with the stone but sits in the same register, letting the optical movement of the Tiger Eye surface be the variable element in an otherwise unified composition. The result is a lighter that reads as resolved rather than decorative.

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.