‘Thank heavens for the internet’

Art Deco pocket lighter - £5200 at Amersham Auction Rooms.

Catalogued together with an incomplete silver propelling pencil with a bloodstone terminal, a silver Art Deco pocket lighter with a timepiece sold at £5200 (estimate £100-200) at Amersham Auction Rooms (17.5% buyer’s premium) on July 11.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Terence Ryle

Art Deco pocket lighter – £5200 at Amersham Auction Rooms.

The bidding came via a phone from France and the eventual successful bidder using thesaleroom.com.

Dunhill and Cartier both produced similar lighters although this example – entered by a client who found it in a drawer – had no maker’s mark.

“Thank heavens for the internet,” said auctioneer Dick Ellis. “Thirty years ago the lighter would have been a sleeper that could have gone through 10 auctions before reaching £5000. I admit I hadn’t a clue. And neither did anyone else in the room.”