S.T. Dupont: 1872, the Faverges Workshop and the Cling

S.T. Dupont is one of the oldest names in French luxury goods and one of the most consequential in cigar accessories, and the reason is a technique: it was the first luxury maison to master Asian lacquer on metal. We carry S.T. Dupont through two collaborations rather than as a standalone line: the El Septimo x S.T. Dupont collection, and the Le Grand lighter made with Arturo Fuente, Brizard and Co. and Maccarrone.

This profile covers the maison's history, the Faverges workshop, the lacquer, the lighter lines, and both collaborations in detail.

1872 to Faverges

Simon Tissot Dupont founded the house in Paris in 1872, at the age of twenty five, with a leatherwork shop. In 1924 his sons Lucien and André moved production from Paris to Faverges in Haute-Savoie, beside Lake Annecy, which the maison describes as Europe's purest lake. The workshop has been there ever since.

The milestones that matter to a cigar smoker:

• 1930 Diamond Soft Leather, a tanning process using diamond powder
• 1935 Georges Novossiltzeff, the house's First Master lacquerer, introduces Asian lacquer
• 1941 the first luxury lighter, per the maison's own heritage page
• 1952 the D57 gas lighter, with an adjustable flame
• 1962 lighters carrying lacquer sketches by Picasso
• 1973 the Classique ballpoint
• 2012 Mon Dupont with Karl Lagerfeld
• 2017 the Complication lighter, built from 200 parts with a dual flame
• 2023 the Le Mans collection

The El Septimo x S.T. Dupont pens

Four of the six Line D pens from the collection, each named for an El Septimo line.

The lacquer, and the cling

Chinese lacquer on metal is the technique that separates S.T. Dupont from every other lighter maker. Lacquer is the sap of a tree, applied in many thin coats and cured between each one, and it had traditionally been applied to wood rather than to metal. Novossiltzeff solved the metal problem in 1935, and the maison refined the result into what it now calls S.T. Dupont lacquer.

The house's other named signature is the cling sound, the tone a Ligne lighter makes when the cap opens. S.T. Dupont treats it as part of its design identity rather than as an accident of engineering, and it is genuinely the fastest way to identify one blind.

The lighter lines

The current range, by the maison's own naming: Ligne 1, Ligne 2, Le Grand Dupont, Initial, Biggy, Slimmy, Twiggy, the Lighter Necklace, Maxijet, Minijet, Slim 7, the Windproof and Défi Extrême family, Table Lighter and Torch, and XXtreme.

Ligne 2 is the one to know. The maison states it was designed on the golden ratio, and it is the line that carries the cling and the lacquer work most fully. Défi Extrême is the double torch flame system, which is the correct choice for outdoors; the soft flame Lignes are indoor and table lighters by nature. Our lighter collection covers both flame types across every brand we carry.

The El Septimo x S.T. Dupont pieces

El Septimo x S.T. Dupont

Announced on 21 March 2024 and launched globally that April, the Zaya Collection paired six exclusive Ligne 2 lighters with six matching Line D Eternity pens. The pieces take their names from El Septimo's own lines: Alexander, Augustus, Napoleon, Raphael and Yao. The announcement carried statements from the chief executives of both houses.

It is an unusually complete collaboration. Most accessory partnerships put one brand's logo on another brand's product. This one built a matched set across two object categories, in the same finishes, named for the cigar lines they were meant to accompany.

If you want the cigars those names come from, they are in the El Septimo collection and the Emperor collection.

Le Grand, with Fuente, Brizard and Maccarrone

The second collaboration is the more remarkable object. Le Grand is a lighter made by four houses together: Maccarrone supplied burl walnut and tulipwood marquetry on one face, Brizard and Co. the ostrich leather on the other, S.T. Dupont the mechanism underneath, and Arturo Fuente the Fuente Fuente OpusX theme that ties it together.

It was the first marquetry in S.T. Dupont's history, limited to 99 pieces at 5,700 dollars. A green variant went into an Arturo Fuente humidor that sold for 150,000 dollars at the Procigar auction. We carry the Le Grand lighters in black, blue and red.

What we notice first-hand

Two things worth saying plainly.

The first is about what we actually carry, because we would rather be accurate than impressive. We are not a general S.T. Dupont retailer. What we hold are the pieces from the El Septimo collaboration and the Le Grand lighters from the Fuente project. If you are looking for a standard Ligne 2 in a catalogue finish, we are not the shop for that, and we will say so on the phone.

The second is about flame type, and it applies to every S.T. Dupont soft flame lighter. A soft flame is beautiful, it lights a cigar without scorching it, and it will not survive a breeze. If your cigars are smoked outdoors, keep a torch alongside it. That is not a criticism of the object, it is what the object is for.

On the collaboration pieces specifically: these are limited runs and, once a colourway sells through, it is not restocked. Anything on this page that is showing as available is available now rather than reliably.

The full El Septimo x S.T. Dupont collection, live

Browse the collection

The bottom line

S.T. Dupont is the maison other luxury houses go to when they want a mechanism worth putting their own work on top of, and both collaborations we carry are examples of exactly that. If a matched cigar and accessory set is what you are after, the El Septimo pieces are the place to look; if you want a single object with a story, Le Grand is it.

For everyday lighters and cutters, our accessory range and the Brizard and Co. profile are the better starting point.

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