Vintage Colibri

El Presidente · April 5, 2021

I came acoss this vintage Colibri lighter and read up a little on the company's history. I thought you might find it interesting.

Colibri was founded in 1928 by Julius Lowenthal, who in the same year, invented the world's first working semi-automatic lighter.[1] In 1935, Colibri launched the fully automatic ‘Monopol’ lighter, which had an acceleration system. From 1940 to 1945 Colibri produced the ‘Stormgard’ lighter designed for soldiers fighting in World War II. In 1952, Julius Lowenthal's son Jack joined Colibri. Colibri produced a lighter with a visible multiple gas refill and a hydraulic auto-flint system in 1958, and an electric lighter, which they named Molectric in 1967.

In 1974, for the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, Colibri supplied the golden gun, which was constructed from a Molectric 88 lighter, cufflinks, cigarette case and fountain pen. Later in 1974, Colibri sponsored the winning Lombard RAC rally team, driven by Henry Liddon and Timo Mäkinen.

In the 1980s, Jack's son David joined Colibri, which then started supplying items such as Swiss watches, cufflinks, and pens. In 2001 the Vortex and Trifecta lines were introduced, with pyramidal twin-flame and triple flame lighters. On January 14, 2009 the company abruptly closed its doors announcing it was seeking the protections of filing a petition of receivership with the state of Rhode Island. In February 2009 Colibri changed ownership, and moved their head office from Providence to New York City, USA. Soon after, they introduced the Classic (C), Design (D), and Technical (T) Series.