RONSON 1936 Art-Deco Machine Age Cigar Humidor Desk Box With Touch-Tip Striker
Ronson Art Deco Combination Humidor and Touch Tip Table Lighter.
This Art Deco smoking accessory is a combination humidor box and touch tip lighter by Ronson Lighter Co., back in the 1930's. It has a masculine, architectural and machine age style in polished and satin chrome with black lacquer accents. The central rectangular box is the humidor covered inside with cedar-wood. On one side is a compartment that holds water to provide moisture through a hole in the wall of the humidor. On the other side is a touch tip lighter.
Country: United States.
Designer: Louis V. Aronson for Ronson lighter Co.
Model: T-T with cigar humidor, Ronson catalog model-16157.
Period: Art deco 1936.
Weight: About 5 pounds, (2.28 Kg).
Measurements: 118 mm by 256 mm by 120 mm (4.65 x 10.1 x 4.75 Inches).
Marks: Stamped with the maker's mark and signed, "FASHIONED BY RONSON NEWARK NJ US PATS BRITISH PAT IN CANADA 1935 NEWARK NJ-USA-ART METAL WORKS INC. RONSON-TOUCH-TIP ".
The Ronson Lighter Company
The company started as The Art Metal Works in 1897 and was incorporated on July 20, 1898, by Max Hecht, Louis Vincent Aronson and Leopold Herzig, in Newark, New Jersey. Louis V. Aronson was a huge creative driving force for the company; and, with a few business adjustments, including the addition of Alexander Harris (1910–11) as Business Manager, the company soon became World Famous. In the 1910s The Art Metal Works were producing very good quality Hood Ornaments and gained a reputation as a dependable supplier of same. All accounts state that Louis Aronson was a gifted man, who at 16 years old set up a money-making shop in his parent's home - before receiving a U.S. patent for a commercially valuable metal-plating process he developed when he was 24 years old, and he sold half the rights while retaining the Right to Use. "His experiments, which he has been conducting since his early youth, resulted in 1893 in the discovery of a process for electrically producing tinplate. Much money was expended upon improving the process... and has been of great practical value to the whole industry. Retaining its rights, he sold half the patent rights, and later used part of the proceeds to open the Art Metal Works in Newark, N.J. Soon the company was producing a variety of high-quality Lamps, Book ends, Art Statues and other decorative items, prized today for their detail in the collector marketplace.
Louis Vincent Aronson
Louis Vincent Aronson was an American inventor, industrialist and philanthropist who is best remembered as the inventor of Ronson lighters. "He was a son of Simon and Jennie Aronson, who were natives of Prussia. He was born December 25, 1869, in New York City, and there his boyhood was spent. Aronson was an exceptionally gifted young man who graduated from public school at the age of 12 before entering a New York Technical School specializing in metallurgy, practical metal working and mechanical drawing. At the same time, he set up a laboratory in the basement of his parents' home where he experimented with plating processes and turned-out money-making items while he devised ways of metalizing common items, in a durable finish of matte gold, including flowers, butterflies, animal claws and baby shoes. Aronson natural ability for designing was honed at the technical school and served him well throughout his life. He excelled and completed the School four year academic program in three years. When he graduated in 1886, at the age of 16, he was qualified as an Expert Metallurgist, Draftsman and Designer, he also had a high-level knowledge of Chemistry. He returned to the school five years later as an instructor in metallurgy for several years before devoting all his time to his own company. When he was 24 years old, he sold the rights to a commercially valuable metal plating process according to Urban Cummings book Ronson, The World’s Greatest Lighters, Wick Lighters 1913–2000. He gained public recognition when he won an award in 1893 from the Belgian government for the creation of the first non-toxic match, and young businessman Aronson received 50,000 Francs, equaling $10,000 in U.S. dollars. In 1897 he received a U.S. patent (592,227) for a match design (called the Wind-match) that would light in windy conditions or when wet. He continued working on his match designs including inventing the “Birds Eye” or “Kitchen” match that had a dual-tip design in 1903; this was an important safety improvement because friction matches of the day would sometimes light accidentally especially when stepped on or while in one’s pocket. He realized that placing a small friction ignition chemical on the tip instead of the entire match-head greatly limited accidental ignition. This style of match is still in use today.
Literature: Urban K. Cummings, Ronson, the World's Greatest Lighter: Wick Lighters 1913-1966 Bird Dog Books, California. 1992. Pp-134 Figure-144 for this box illustrated.
Condition: The overall condition of this Ronson humidor is very good. Beside the normal wear and missing in the lacquer, there is no damage and all parts are secured in their settings. This piece was carefully inspected to guarantee the condition and authenticity.
INVENTORY REF: D070125MANN/.8967
