REF: 2391

Alfred Dunhill ‘Aquarium’ lighter (1950s)

L: 4 inches (10 cm)

An especially beautiful Dunhill ‘Aquarium’ table lighter in ‘Half Giant’ table size, with chrome hardware, and an extremely vivid blue background to all the panels, showing two silver and black Angel fish to the front and an extremely exotic large red and orange fish to the reverse. An excellent example with crisp clear panels in an unusual colourway. English, circa 1950. In perfect order and complete with a bespoke Dunhill presentation case.

The ‘Aquarium’ lighters were all designed and hand-made between 1950 and 1959, by Ben Shillingford (1904-2000) whose unique skills in designing, carving and hand-painting the Perspex panels could never be equalled. Upon his retirement, the skills necessary to make the ‘Aquarium’ lighter could not be found, so manufacture ceased. No two ‘Aquarium’ lighters are the same – each is, in its way, a unique work of art. The vast majority, logically, depict aquatic scenes, of either sea-water or fresh-water fish (but never both).