Featured Dunhill 'Unique Sports' Lift-Arm Lighter (Ca. 1925)

I spent the morning restoring this purchase from the market. I'll sell off some other stuff to atone for the expense...

Before:




During:



After:

 

Glamour Shots:

 

WELL DONE Shangas !!! .. Very nice indeed !!! ... Joy.

 

Love it !

 

I can only repeat what @Christmasjoy said!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!

 

So much work!

Debora

 

Thanks for the comments, everybody. Fixing this was a labour of love. Cleaning, polishing, rubbing off the grime, removing the windshield to wipe all that crud away... I love the look of these old, lift-arm antiques. Modern lighters just don't have the same panache...

 

Love how you have it floating in mid-air

 

The benefits of having a high-gloss grand piano in your living room

I also did one last thing: I removed the engraving from the top of the snuffer-cap. I wasn't able to remove it entirely, but it's like 99.5% gone.

Final Before-&-After shots:

 

AAACHHHOOO!!

*sniff*

*Blows dust off of this VERY old thread*

After waiting a long, long, long LONG time...I FINALLY got my antique Dunhill RE-PLATED!!

In nickel.

Voila!

It's not 100% perfect, but hey, the lighter's damn near 100 years old. Here's some side-by-sides with the original photos I took back in 2019:

 

Stunning-By the way,if you don't mind me asking-how old are you Shanga ? You may consider yourself 'underage' ,but you already seem quite accomplished regarding antiques.Might a YouTube restoration show be in your future ?

 

I'm 35, if you're desperate to know. When I started writing my blog, and selling antiques online, I was only just into my early/mid 20s (about 22-24).

I didn't know any other antiques dealers, collectors, or writers my age. Everybody else was 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years old...so I was a huge outlier at the time.

And I already have a YouTube channel. I show off the various things in my collection in it.

 

More photos:

 

I got into collecting young too (also love history,antiques prob an off-shoot).

 

Yes I'm a huge history-buff and antiques enthusiast. I love fixing, tinkering, collecting, and selling.

Here's a photograph of the lighter in the open air.

That windshield really does an impressive job!

 

then why buff out the original owners initials ?

 

The 'half giant' Dunhill aquarium table top lighter-wild and expensive.Faux aquarium lighters were a thing in the 50's.I like your minimal Bauhaus model better.

 

1. They don't add anything to the value or the history of the lighter.

2. I liked the smooth, unblemished look better.

 

1. let's agree to disagree..

 

I missed this the first time, looks fabulous with the new plating

was just thinking the same thing

I'm with you komokwa, shame to erase part of the history of the piece