Stefano Ricci SR Cigar Holder — Mother of Pearl / Gold

Stefano Ricci SR Cigar Holder — Mother of Pearl / Gold

The cigar holder has a longer history in European and Mediterranean smoking culture than the modern cigar accessory market tends to acknowledge. Before the widespread adoption of filtered cigarettes, before the standardization of ring gauges and the current culture of the unmediated cigar, holders were common among serious smokers — a practical instrument that cooled the draw, protected the lips, and kept the fingers clean over the course of a session. In Italian cigar culture, the holder remains a recognized accessory, and Stefano Ricci addresses it as one: not a novelty but a considered piece, built to the same material standard as the lighter and cutter in the SR line.

The SR cigar holder is constructed with Mother of Pearl details and gold finishing. Mother of Pearl — nacre, the aragonite layer that mollusks deposit against foreign bodies over years of growth — is the iridescent material that appears throughout the upper tier of the SR accessory line: on the dual flame lighter, on the cigar cutter, and now on the cigar holder. Its presence on all three instruments creates a cohesion across the tools of the smoking ritual: the light, the cut, and the hold, each in the same material register.

Mother of Pearl

Nacre is not a uniform material. Each piece of Mother of Pearl is the product of the specific mollusk, the specific water, and the specific years of growth that produced it — the iridescence shifting from angle to angle, the color range within a single piece moving from white through cream, pink, and silver depending on the light. On the cigar holder, this material is present at a scale that the smoker holds continuously during a session: close, present, changing with every slight movement of the hand and the ambient light. It is the luxury material at its most intimate.

Gold Finishing

Gold finishing on the hardware details brings the warmth of the metal to the iridescent surface of the Mother of Pearl — the same combination present in the SR dual flame lighter and cigar cutter at the gold level. Mother of Pearl and gold occupy related tonal registers — cream and iridescent nacre, warm and reflective gold — and their combination has organized decorative objects from European enamel work to fine jewelry across centuries.

Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.