Zippo in the Bar

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Remington Firearms manufacturing Company.

Zippo mfg is still producing advertisement lighters for firearm companies such as Remington. Similarly for Harley Davidson, automobiles mfg, playboy magazines, liquor brewery, etc. To list a few. Advertising/trademarks series are commonly widespread, closely knitted alongside Zippo's manufacture history & produced consistently with frequent switching designs of the same icon.

Various companies/corporations contract with Zippo for these lighters customized to their specifications. Just like name-cards or necessity items(cups, shirts, pens etc) bearing their names/ trademark symbols, Zippo lighters are another commodity selected for promoting themselves with.

Zippo stepped-up sales by selling advertisers to the general consumers, with legal rights/authorization from respective places. Some advertisers are found within Zippo international/regional sales Catalog & their websites among many assortment of design choices.




______________

This piece of advertisement is a sales sample/specimen for Zippo's marketing. Zippo sales representatives would carry some of these lighters while making their products known around places such as retail, tobacco shops, convenient store etc. Similarly during Zippo's introduction into any country/territory.

Brushed brass casing's facade. Note the bottom stamp distinctive from most regular coding. Complete digits numbering the year of Zippo founding (left), and the making of this item (right).

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

High Polished, Gold-plated finish with Zippo lighter's emblem.


This is 1 highly collectible piece from a lighter's emblem series produced during the 90's. A few other finishes i can name are, high-polished chrome/midnight chrome/polished brass.






_____________
Picture from Google Image


Picture from  'eBid'

Monday, July 29, 2013

Year of: 2000.

Here're a couple productions from year 2000. The Rose-gold plated was made in January of that year whereas the Street-Chrome in July. Note the distinctions between these date codes.

With reference to my 'knowing when it's made' post. I pointed out that Zippo had a unique 'combined' bottom coding as marked in this street-chrome.

Hence i came out an analysis that Zippo mfg company continued using the roman numerical numbers(only) till mid-year & started with their new 'combined' date code for the rest of the year.  Perhaps?



Locomotive


Well used as the previous Harley Davidson's.  Un-verified by Zippo manufacturing co. yet, there're skepticism it may be counterfeited.  Once proved genuine, this probably becomes another unique lighter barely seen elsewhere.

The illustration looks to have been acid etched before Chroming. The small words caption read:
'One of the dear old steam 
Locomotive in the world
1893'

Drop me a comment if anybody came across such item or had owned one!

Manufacture date as Indicated: December 1995.






Sunday, July 28, 2013

Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company. 'The Strong Survives'


This piece was well used by the previous owner, noticeable by the wears on it's surfaces.Suffered a broken cam-stop, hence i sent it to Zippo & had it's hinges replaced free.

Quite importantly, the paint job on this lighter is sturdy & well kept. What i find unique is that nowhere else has an image or description about this item, or of it's series- if there was. Definitely it's no longer produced. Zippo makes many designs for Harley Davidson's products anyway & ceased producing plenty.
________________

I'll assume this to be one of it's kind that remains to-date & is photographed. Please drop me a comment if there's known to be another, of such design & art (Paint-filed Bear/Animal image with Harley Davidson's Logo & caption)

Produced in November 1995.





Scrimshaw. Boat & lighthouse.


Zippo started producing scrimshaw designs in 1982. First using ivory chips, then materials such as the 'Ultra-lite' primarily.

Boat & Lighthouse model is more well liked than the other design themes among the Scrimshaw family, hence widely available.  Manufactured: August 1995.





Jim Beam Brand Whiskey- Pewter Emblem lighter.


Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey. Manufactured: October 2006. Slightly tarnished with patina on the facet. Came with it's original Tin container. This production is more commonly packed in the standard black paper boxes.




Thursday, July 18, 2013

Display shelves unit


As the collection builds, there's a needs for space to accommodate. This book shelf came useful.





it gradually grew till this much. 



Needing a new furniture from IKEA to accommodate this growing population!









Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Beginner's collections.


After getting the 1st, i decided to obtain a black matte w border as a second piece.



Slowly & gradually, 1 leads to another... & another.









Received my first annual Zippo sales catalog & collector's guide, along a Jim Beam Bourbon- pewter emblem lighter.

First Zippo Lighter ever obtained.


How did you obtain your first Zippo windproof lighter?

I shall commence my sharing around my first Zippo lighter. It's being known that Zippo has been a famous American icon over 8 decades. While growing up i'd been exposed to this symbol from various western shows, by words of mouths too. Such factors unconsciously navigated towards a hobby which brought many colors into my life, now & in times to come.

Internet spurred my interests further. A YouTube video was the spark igniting this enthusiasm, all began as a sudden recall of faint memories & itchy typing of the keyboard.

Immersed in curiosity & apprehension, i headed to a local fashion retail '77th Street' where the only place i could recall selling genuine Zippo lighters. There were stereotypes, having a decent lighter associates with smoking or arsonist behavior so it seemed. Me don't smoke anything, nor possessing a need to get one.

Guess it was fate & temptations which couldn't be restrained.



Regular Street chrome: 
 ( words engraved at a later period)

The dude convinced me of buying my first lighter, well. .  happened to be a sales person describing kids buying Zippos for doing tricks & collections. Such a trend isn't widely observed though. Seen a  statistics saying a large percentage of Zippo collectors globally aren't smokers. Hard to believe. 
Image abstracted from:
http://search.insing.com/business/77th-street/thomson-sin-ming-bishan/id-f9620100


Though YouTube kick-started it all.. Mine's first Zippo scooped-up inspirations to explore into the pieces of brass, steel & rayons. Their lifetime warranty of every lighters from the beginning, stood firm testifying this enthusiasm for beginning a collection. Deep rooted histories of the company & places some lighters went through, reaffirmed my decisions to walk into a world of collecting. 

Most critically, Zippo lighters are still made in their hometown of Bradford till this day, guarding tightly to the American-made qualities. 

If there's a product company, committed to their stuffs & the users, true to their claims while regarding customers as customers, me can only think of Zippo mfg. Where else can you find a place providing an unquestioned warranty for each products long as it exists? 



Introduction to this blog page.

Good day to all!!

This page is devoted to my Zippo lighters collection i'd collected over a while. Each piece will be pictured & described as much possible. Browse around & enjoy reading!