You don't see these come up very often. Or at least I haven't yet.

pyrogene

Looks like an extremely expensive striker.

All I know is that I have
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
stuck in my head now.

I use a Zippo. I don't need no stinking matchstriker.

Oh good, its only half a thousand bucks right now. I'll go ahead and bid right away.

WTF is up with those things anyway?

I got a nice repro striker for $10.00 in a local antique shop.

They look nice on a table with the other hardware.

Yeah, but don't they come free on the bottom of a book of matches?

Repo striker huh? I didn't think such things existed. Does it look like an authentic one with the same shape and everything?

Some of the strikers on ebay are repros.

Mine is a Cassis Quenot striker.

http://www.londonjoiners.com/sales/list_page/ashtrays

I hope mine is a repro, I only paid ten bucks for mine.

Yep, I second that one...I've got a couple. But, not from that link. They are kinda cool next to the other items like the sugar dish.

Yeah, I think they are cool too. I dodn't know that they had repos of them. I am going have to start looking through the local antique shops.

You have to be really careful about the Pyrogenes on eBay; there are many fakes (primarily by Cormenier) & even the ones that aren't fakes are often misguidedly "touched up" which can ruin their value. The prices have been astronomical of late; the past month has seen 4 different Pyrogenes (that I'm aware of) going for 600E to 900E!

Oxygenee has posted a VERY helpful guide to recognising the fakes. You can view it here : Ballerini's Cuillere Forum He also discusses many of the faked spoons on the market these days. It's definitely worth reading, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

You know, I could sure use a striker, spoon holder and sugar tray. If anyone one of you has multiples of such, I'd rather give you the money than some shill on Ebay.

PM if you gots the goods.

DG