And You Thought Zippo Only Made Lighters Volume 1
Michael Grimaldi
ISBN 0-9777489-0-1
Most Zippo collectors will have seen, and quite possibly acquired one of the non-lighter products from the Zippo catalogue. Other than a short section in the Cars & Trucks book, very little has been written about the other products manufactured by Zippo, or those made under licence and sold under the Zippo name. Over the years Zippo have made a variety of products from knives to clothes pins. Mike's book addresses this gap in the published work. Volume 1 covers the years 1960 to 1979 with Volume 2 (yet to be published) covering the later additions to the product line.
The book itself is over 200 pages and is sorted by year, rather than product. New additions to the line are covered in detail for the year they entered the product line, and refinements to previous product designs are covered in subsequent chapters. Also included are details of the packaging used in a particular year, all of which helps the user identify the approximate date of manufacture of a particular product (Most non-lighter products are not date coded).
The book is packed with photos to illustrate the text, with pictures of the products themselves, the packaging, advertising and even some of the original artwork used on the products. One very useful feature is the final chapter of the book. This describes, and illustrates the finishes of Zippo lighters over the years and helps answer a common question by new collectors "Is this lighter street chrome, or satin chrome? All the finishes used by Zippo on both lighters and the other products are shown in this chapter.
For anyone who has a collection of Zippo products, dating has always been problematic. This book will certainly help the reader narrow down the year of manufacture. (See example here)
Rating - Essential