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My husband received this lighter as a gift from his grandmother Martha Pierce Rafferty who is the sister of Barbara Pierce Bush. His grandmother was a smoker but lived a long full life and at the tender age of 18(I believe this was her age) even graced the cover of Vogue magazine (I have seen the issue but do not remember the volume numbers or the year). are the details about the various writings on this piece some of which is readable in the photos and some of which was too difficult to capture because of the nature of gold and our limited camera skills. I warrantee that it says what it says as I state it : On the front of the piece within the clock face itself it says "CARTIER" and the numbers 1-12 as you would find them on a clock. On the bottom of the piece it has "US. PAT. N' 1022140" and "ENGL. PAT. 143152" and on the cap for the fill the word "DUNHILL" is written around the edge from 9 oclock to about 11 oclock and "14K Solid Gold" is written from bottom left to top right along the notch in the center of the cap which sits at a forty five degree to the rest of the text when the cap is tight. All of these etchings are very readable. just below the english patent and number is another number which is more faint and reads "4105". On the inside back of the watch case it reads "14K" near the center and the number "26" is readable about a 1/4 cm below. On the works of the watch itself t are several writings: Seventeen 17 Jewels Two2 adj is written across the bottom of the back and in the top left hand corner it says "MIMO W Co." and below the seconds wheel it reads "SWISS". If t are other marks I have not found them. That is all. As you can see from the pictures t is a set of dents across the back of this piece. These were both caused at the same time by the same impetuous young man, (my husband). He left the piece of the spring under the screw which holds it in place. We do not have the rest of the spring nor the piece of gold which covered it. To my understanding, this was a sandwiched bimetal piece. The gold must be attached to the spring metal in order to be drawn back when the lid is shut. That is all I know about that. The lighter does work as does the watch.
We love this lighter and know that it has significant value. I also know that it has some issues in terms of quality but with the right kind of watch maker or gold smith or a little of both it could come out being a significant piece. I have not done a lot of research on the connections that Dunhill and Cartier have had over the years but this period seems to be somewhat close to the beginning of that relationship. These lighter bodies seem to be hand tooled and have a quality of craftsmanship you can only get from craftwork.
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