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For sale is my Rosen Nesor Pocket cigarette lighter, circa 1940s-1950s, with a flip top flint/fluid/wick mechanism, and a well-worn bawdy (nudie) enameled cartoon on the front. The novelty cartoon shows a nude woman on a psychiatrist's couch, the psychiatrist in his boxer shorts putting on his shirt. The caption atop the lighter, "THAT SOLVES MY PROBLEM, NOW WHAT'S YOURS?" The bottom of the lighter has the engraved words "NESOR," the manufacturer, and, in smaller type, "JAPAN".
I bought the lighter from a New Jersey seller at sale in 2007, offerding against, inter alia, the Beat Museum in San Francisco according to the seller. The seller acquired the lighter from the estate sale of the Central High School (1909-1965) principal in Paterson, New Jersey, who was principal during the time poet Louis Ginsberg, the father of Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg (Howl), taught English at the school for 40 years. The seller listed the lighter as the personal property of the late Jack Kerouac (On the Road), a friend and fellow Beat Generation colleague of Allen Ginsberg. This exclusive provenance is based on that oral history of the estate sale.
The seller offered at sale two more artifacts attributed to Kerouac from the Ginsberg estate sale: a vintage leather dopp kit and a used Harrington jacket. I acquired the dopp kit, which I have also listed contemporaneously on . The Beat Museum, according to the seller, won the sale for the jacket. I also have listed an important portrait of Kerouac, with excellent documentary provenance, discussed in a Kerouac novel.
My high-definition photographs are your best guide to this vintage lighter and its condition. I will ship the lighter promptly and safely packed in a box.
