Description

For sale is a Cartier Basket Jacket lighter in solid 18k two-tone yellow and white gold, crafted in France circa 1982 and presented in excellent condition. The 750 hallmarks are clearly stamped beneath the body, confirming solid gold construction throughout. This is not a gold-cased or gold-plated lighter; it is solid 18k gold, woven by hand into the iconic basket pattern that represents the technical and aesthetic apex of Cartier’s lighter programme. Complete examples of this quality and provenance surface rarely.

Cartier and the Art of the Precious Lighter

Cartier’s entry into the world of luxury lighters was a natural extension of its broader ambition: to apply the finest materials and the most demanding craftsmanship to every object that a person of taste might carry. From the 1960s onward, the maison produced a succession of lighter designs in gold, silver, and mixed metals, each one conceived as an object of jewellery rather than merely a functional tool. Where other houses offered gold-plated or vermeil cases over standard lighter mechanisms, Cartier’s most celebrated examples were solidly constructed entirely in precious metal, heavy in the hand, and made to be passed down rather than discarded.

The Basket Jacket lighter, produced through the 1970s and 1980s, represents the pinnacle of this programme. The basket weave pattern, alternating bands of yellow and white gold interlocked in a hand-woven textile structure, is among the most technically demanding designs Cartier produced in this period. Each section of the weave must be individually formed and fitted; the alternating tones require precise management of two different alloys within a single unified surface. The result is a lighter that catches light from every angle differently, the yellow and white gold playing off each other across the woven surface in a constant, shifting dialogue.

The Basket Weave – Two Tones, One Surface

The two-tone construction of this lighter is its defining visual characteristic. Yellow gold, warm, rich, and historically the default precious metal of Cartier’s most celebrated pieces, is woven in alternating bands with white gold, which reads as cool and architectural against its partner. The effect is not simply decorative: it gives the lighter a visual complexity and depth that a single-tone piece cannot achieve. In daylight, the weave reads as a pattern of warmth and coolness; under artificial light, the two metals respond differently, the yellow gold glowing and the white gold reflecting with a harder, sharper brilliance.

The basket weave itself is not stamped or embossed; it is structurally woven, each strand of the pattern an individual element of the construction. This is handcraft of the highest order, produced at a moment when Cartier’s French ateliers were still executing this kind of work entirely by hand.

1980’s – Cartier at the Height of Its Craft

The early 1980s represent one of the most creatively fertile periods in Cartier’s post-war history. The Les Must de Cartier programme, launched in the 1970s, had reestablished the maison’s presence across a wider market, but the solid gold objects produced during this period for its most demanding clients retained the uncompromising material standards of the earlier era. A 1982 solid gold lighter is a product of Cartier’s French workshops at a moment of genuine ambition, before the rationalisation of production that followed in later decades, and while the house’s commitment to entirely solid precious metal construction in everyday objects remained absolute.

The serial number and 750 hallmarks stamped beneath the body confirm both the gold content and the French manufacture.

Specifications

Brand: Cartier

Object: Basket Jacket Lighter

Year: Ca. 1982

Material: Solid 18k two-tone yellow and white gold (750)

Design: Hand-woven basket pattern in alternating yellow and white gold

Dimensions: approx. 70 mm × 26 mm × 13.5 mm

Weight: approx 88-99g

Hallmarks: 750 stamped under body; Cartier Paris, Made in France

Condition: Excellent condition with minimal signs of wear

Collector Appeal

Solid 18k gold Cartier Basket Jacket lighters are among the most sought-after objects in the maison’s non-watch collectible category, recognised by serious collectors as the definitive expression of Cartier’s precious object programme of the 1970s and 1980s. Two-tone examples in yellow and white gold are rarer than single-tone versions, and complete sets with original box and full documentation are rarer still.

Availability

This vintage day-date automatic watch is available through Vintage Times Amsterdam.

For further information or high-resolution images, please feel free to contact:

Vintage Times

Vintage Times Amsterdam is a small watch boutique who mainly deals online and with a select group of private collectors. We are constantly looking for rare vintage timepieces and try to present the best condition available. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact for more information about this watch or other timepieces from our collection. We ship worldwide and also welcome you for a visit at our office in Amsterdam

Vintage Times

email: [email protected]

tel / app: +31 6 4 1111 044