Electric cigar lighter

Present to Christian IX from his youngest daughter, Duchess Thyra (1853-1933), who was married to Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland and lived in Austria.

The electric cigar lighter is evidence that electricity’s many new possibilities were spread in ingenious ways at the end of the 19th century. Such a device would at that time have been quite extraordinary. It is also evidence that the presents which were constantly exchanged by the Royal Family were far from always of financial value. In the early years of industrialisation in particular mass produced items could seem more interesting than more exclusively manufactured ones.