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Ashton Ashtrays
Posted: Monday, December 13, 2004
By Michael Moretti
When is an ashtray not just a place to deposit cigar refuse? Perhaps when it's decked out in platinum or gold and costs nearly as much as a box of premium cigars.
The new line of Ashton ashtrays features garlanded new dishes for the opulent. They are trimmed in precious metals and crafted by West Coast artist Ann Morhauser, whose signature gold and platinum on glass designs were originally produced for high-end tableware.
The pieces can be as at home on the living room coffee table as they are on the arm of a leather chair in the cigar lounge. They have an undulating shape formed by a process called "slumping" whereby a flat sheet of glass melts on a ceramic mold inside a kiln. The result is a translucent piece with a clouded texture yet smooth surface. A 1,325-degree kiln flame fuses the 24-karat gold or pure platinum to the glass and creates a chip-resistant surface.
These are the first high-end ashtrays to be released for the Ashton brands and are a limited production of 500, 250 of each variety. Ashton also recently debuted a line of high-end humidors and is well known for its namesake premium cigars.
Available at tobacconists, the ashtrays have a suggested retail price of $100.
Photo by Jean Schwarzwalder
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