Stefano Ricci SR Dual Flame Lighter — Nail Polish Red / Gold

Stefano Ricci SR Dual Flame Lighter — Nail Polish Red / Gold

Red lacquer is among the oldest luxury finishes in the world. The Chinese lacquer tradition — applying layer upon layer of urushi resin, dyed red with cinnabar, over weeks and months of patient work — produced objects that were reserved for imperial and ceremonial use for centuries. The Japanese adopted and refined the tradition; Europe encountered it through trade and spent two hundred years trying to replicate it under the name japanning, never quite succeeding in the same depth. What made red lacquer significant was not simply the color — red pigments existed — but the surface quality that the lacquer process created: a depth that made the color appear to come from within the object rather than sitting on top of it.

Stefano Ricci achieves red lacquer on this lighter through nail polish — a medium formulated precisely for chromatic depth and high gloss at small scale. The result is a red that has the layered, interior quality of lacquer rather than the flat surface of paint: the color changes slightly with the angle of observation, carries depth in the same register that the great lacquer traditions were after, and delivers it on an object designed for daily use.

Red / Gold

Red and gold is the color combination of ceremony across cultures — Chinese imperial robes, European heraldic fields, the liturgical colors of Western Christianity, the design language of celebration across every tradition that has used both. On a cigar lighter the combination does not need to be subtle. It carries what it has always carried, at the scale of an object held in the hand.

Dual Flame System

The lighter operates with two flame modes — soft flame for table use and still air, torch flame for outdoor conditions. Both modes available from a single piece.

Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.