Any collectors of vintage lighters out there?

[paulb104]

Howdy! I just dug out this beauty. I know who the character is, and I know about when it was made, but I'm hoping to find more specific info on it.

The character is Gobbo, and it's from 1909ish. Later Gobbo items had his name on it. It's marked L.V. Aronson, not Ronson, so that also suggests it's an earlier piece. What I'm hoping is someone here might have one of the two main lighter reference guides. I have access to four separate library systems, including New York, and none of them seemed to have any of the books. I was looking for "Ronson the World’s Greatest Lighter", or "The Golden Age of Cigarette Lighters", and I even tried simply "cigarette lighter".

I'm also guessing that the stuff inside the base is asbestos. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Thanks

 

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[A2coins]

great piece

 

[paulb104]

great piece

Thanks!

 

[diggummup]

From what I know of vintage lighters, some of the older ones including Ronson and Zippo, the wicks did contain asbestos. I've never heard of the absorbent material in the fuel receptacle being anything other than cotton myself. Nice piece I've never seen one with two wicks. I would think your lighter dates to the 1920's-early 30's since that is when strike lighters were most common.