A Crystal and Brass Table Lighter from Gum's Mall of Antiques

When I have a short list of things to find, I usually end up at Gum's Mall of Antiques & Collectibles in Hawaiian Gardens, California.

Double doors open in a cinder block wall. Inside, under a green-ribbed greenhouse roof, a rock waterfall spills into a pond with turtles drifting through it. I rarely leave without something. This time it took two booths.

The second booth had a cabinet of ornate brass and glass, and the lighter was on the middle shelf. Cut crystal at the base, a pierced brass sleeve above it, the striker set high like the finial on a lamp. Brass always catches my eye. So does anything I haven't already seen a hundred times, and I had never seen this one.

For weeks I'd been looking for a lighter for one specific spot: a small gold table in front of my bookshelf, next to a green onyx ashtray with two metal birds in flight across one corner. Every lighter I'd come across was the wrong height, the wrong material, or the wrong color. With the shelves right behind it, I wanted that table to stay spare.

The owner opened the case and handed it to me. The crystal caught the light even under the booth lamps, and I could already see it at home: clear glass down low beside the onyx, with the brass lifted up level with the brass on the shelves behind it.

It's there now.

Cut crystal table lighters like this one turn up now and then on Etsy. More from this world is in The Dark Study.