S.T. Dupont Ligne 1: History, Versions and How to Identify Yours

The Ligne 1 is the lighter that made S.T. Dupont’s name: a compact, squared brass body, a flint wheel, a cap that opens with one firm press, and a finish in gold, silver or Chinese lacquer. It grew out of a petrol lighter of 1941, became a gas lighter in the 1950s and was made in two versions, the BS and the BR, each in a small and a large size.

Below is the story in order, followed by the practical part collectors ask us about every week: how to tell the versions apart, which size takes which gas, and what to look at before you buy one.

The Ligne 1 timeline at a glance

Before the Ligne 1: a lacquer house and a royal order

S.T. Dupont began in 1872, when Simon Tissot Dupont opened a leather goods workshop in Paris. The house made luggage and travel trunks for a wealthy, travelling clientele, and in 1924 the workshops moved to the family’s home town of Faverges, in the Alps.

Lacquer came by accident. In 1935 the Tissot Dupont brothers advertised for a plaqueur, a gold plater. A typing error turned the word into laqueur, lacquerer, and the man who answered was Georges Novossiltzeff, a lacquer master trained in the circle of Jean Dunand. The brothers took him on, and S.T. Dupont became the first luxury house in Europe to master Chinese lacquer on metal: many thin layers of natural lacquer, each one polished to a deep shine. It is still one of the things the brand is known for.

The first lighters followed during the Second World War. As the house tells it, the Maharaja of Patiala ordered one hundred lacquered minaudières, small evening cases, each with a solid gold lighter inside. The workshop is said to have spent three years on the order. Alongside such commissions came a series lighter: brass was reserved for the war effort, so it was made of aluminium. S.T. Dupont patented it on 6 January 1941.

The petrol years: the Essence (1941 to 1952)

The first S.T. Dupont lighter burned petrol on a wick, lit by a flint. It is now known as the Essence, and it is best seen as a forerunner of the Ligne 1: the line between the two is a thin one. Even in aluminium it already had the clean rectangular body and engine turned lines that the Ligne 1 would keep for decades.

Fuel

Lighter fluid on a wick, flint

Body

Aluminium in the war years, later brass

Made

About 1941 to 1952

Tell

A wick where the gas burner would be, one filling port in the base

The first gas lighter: the D57 (1952 to 1960)

In 1952 S.T. Dupont moved to butane with the D57, one of the first luxury gas lighters. Gas gave a cleaner flame and made flame control possible. The D57 looks like the later Ligne 1, but you recognise it by the solid ring on top of the flint wheel, a flame lever on the outside and no way to shut the gas off with the cap.

Fuel

Butane (red) and flint

Size

One size, as the large Ligne 1: 35 × 14 × 58 mm

Made

About 1952 to 1960

Tell

Solid ring on the flint wheel, outside flame lever

BS and BR: the two Ligne 1 versions

Collectors still sort the Ligne 1 by two old factory names. They are the most reliable way to describe an early piece, and both work the same way in daily use: press the latch, the cap springs open, roll the wheel.

Ligne 1 BS, Briquet Standard (1959 to 1973)

The BS was the first S.T. Dupont with a gas shutoff on the latch: closing the cap stops the gas. It has no flame adjustment, so the flame height is set inside the lighter. The small version is called BSP, the large one BSG.

Fuel

Butane: small yellow, large red; flint

Sizes

Small (BSP) 35 × 14 × 47 mm, large (BSG) 35 × 14 × 58 mm

Made

1959 to 1973

Tell

Gas shutoff on the latch, no adjustment wheel

In stock

Ligne 1 lighters

Ligne 1 BR, Briquet Réglable (1965 to 2013)

The BR replaced the shutoff with a small flame adjustment wheel under the cap. From the outside the two look almost identical; open the cap and the difference is plain. These proportions, and the flint ignition, set the pattern for the Ligne 2 that followed. The small version is called BRP, the large one BRG.

Fuel

Butane: small yellow, large red; flint

Sizes

Small (BRP) 35 × 14 × 47 mm, large (BRG) 35 × 14 × 58 mm

Made

1965 to 2013

Tell

Flame adjustment wheel under the cap, marked plus and minus

In stock

Ligne 1 lighters

Small or large, and which gas

Every Ligne 1, BS or BR, was made in two heights. The size decides the gas, whatever the age of the lighter: the large (regular) Ligne 1 always takes the red S.T. Dupont refill, the small one always takes yellow.

The colour dot inside the refill cap confirms it. No dot only means the cap was replaced at some point; it is not a sign of a fake. More in our S.T. Dupont gas refill guide.

How to tell which Ligne 1 you have

1. Measure the height. About 47 mm is a small Ligne 1, about 58 mm a large one. Taller and slimmer (56 or 62 mm, 11 mm thick) is a Ligne 2.
2. Open the cap. A small wheel under the cap means a BR. A shutoff and no wheel means a BS. A wick means a petrol Essence.
3. Look for the D57 signs. A solid ring on the flint wheel and a flame lever on the outside point to the earlier D57.
4. Check the refill cap. On the bottom, under a cap. Most caps have a small lip you lift and turn; only the oldest Ligne 1 lighters have a slotted cap for a coin.

Still not sure? Our guide to every S.T. Dupont model shows the Ligne 1 next to the Ligne 2, Gatsby and the rest.

The Ligne 1 and the cling

The clear ring when an S.T. Dupont opens, the cling, is the house’s best known sound. It belongs to the Ligne 2 of 1977, whose cap was designed for it, and to the Gatsby built on the same mechanism. A Ligne 1 should not have a cling: it was never intended to. Some oddly do ring, but then it is by accident, so do not expect a Ligne 1 to have the ring a Ligne 2 would have. What a good Ligne 1 should have is a crisp, precise action with no play in the hinge. Weighing the two classics against each other? Read Dunhill Rollagas vs S.T. Dupont Ligne 2.

Jackie Kennedy and the first S.T. Dupont pen

By the 1950s and 1960s the Ligne 1 had become a mark of taste. The most famous example is Pablo Picasso, who drew on the lacquer of his own S.T. Dupont; it is why the house later made a Picasso limited edition in 1998.

The best documented story is Jacqueline Kennedy’s. In 1962 André Malraux, France’s Minister of Culture, gave the First Lady a black lacquer Ligne 1 with a discreet “J” in yellow gold. She used it for years. In 1972 she asked S.T. Dupont for a ballpoint pen to match it. The house did not make pens, accepted anyway, and the result was its first writing instrument, the start of the pens it still makes today.

Collecting a Ligne 1 today

Made for more than half a century, the Ligne 1 comes in a huge range of finishes: gold or silver plate with engine turned patterns, Chinese lacquer in black, red, blue and tortoiseshell, and hand painted motifs such as characters and dragons. In 1991 S.T. Dupont marked fifty years of lighters with the Jubilé edition, and over the years came diamond set pieces for the Prestige line; see our guide to S.T. Dupont limited editions.

The pieces collectors chase most are the early aluminium lighters from the war years, the solid gold Ligne 1 lighters of the 1960s and 1970s (read S.T. Dupont solid gold lighters explained), and lacquer pieces in fine condition or with a documented history.

Every Ligne 1 we sell is checked, serviced and bled after service in our workshop, and guaranteed authentic. It ships empty, as transport rules require. See the vintage Ligne 1 lighters we have now.