Views from a Smoke-Filled Room

LOS ANGELES – If you’re going to smoke a cigar, you’re going to need an ashtray. And if you’re in the market, there has never been such a wide selection of gorgeous models to choose from.

During the Cigar Boom of the 1990s, you may have gawked at the elegant red-and-black, seven-inch-square Dunhill ceramic ashtrays that adorned the countertops of smokeshops across the country, made by the celebrated Wade Ceramics firm in England. These beauties are out of circulation, but turn up regularly on eBay . . . in all three collectible sizes.

Not as widely celebrated was a black ceramic ashtray made for General Cigar for its Macanudo and Partagas brands that were widely used in stores, and for some promotions to consumers, in the 1990s. These have four cigar rests, with one at each corner, and gold lettering with the brand names and logos. They are the patriarchs of the current explosion of models seen today.

Fashionable, heavyweight cigar ashtrays with precise edging, nicely-designed logos and wide cigar rests may have started with the Padron Ashtray about four years ago. It’s ceramic, but boldly designed as a sharply edged square with a circular bowl carved out in the middle and four half-cylinder cigar rests in the middle of each side. At 8 1/2 inches square, it’s impressively sized, and its jet-black color and glossy finish make it stand out anywhere. And at about $20 retail, it doesn’t cost any more than one of Padron’s higher-end cigars!

That shape set off a quiet revolution that today has many manufacturers creating ashtrays of similar style. J-R Cigars, the largest retailer of cigars in the United States, came out with a seemingly endless series of these ashtrays in 2005, each more stunning that the last. There was a brilliant yellow and red model for Partagas, with the brand logo imprinted in the bowl of the ashtray, making it more a collector’s item than a candidate for practical use. There was a bright white model for Macanudo, both black and white models for Nat Sherman and most recently, a new, black ashtray for H. Upmann. All have been used as premiums to go along with purchases of boxes of cigars. But you’ll occasionally find them in stores, or for certain on eBay, where they command prices of $50 and up by themselves.

Manufacturers have seen the possibilities as well. The Oliva Cigar Co. has introduced a model similar to that made for Padron, but in a brown, tobacco-styled color, but the two most spectacular models are made for Romeo y Julieta and C.A.O.

The Romeo y Julieta 1875 circular ashtray has been a sensation since its release a couple of years ago. It’s a white ceramic model that’s designed in a circular style with small extensions that make it look a little like a propeller. It has a center bowl and three cigar rests that are also angled to emphasize the circular theme. Supremely elegant, it is beautifully made and goes for $50-75 on eBay with regularity.

More artful and designed to make a statement, the C.A.O. Cubist Ashtray has also been on the market for just a couple of years, but is totally unique. It also has a center bowl, but it is square and the square unit around it is divided into four sections, each of which is raised to a different height and angled, hence the "Cubist" name. The C.A.O. brand identification on the unit is discreet and it could easily pass for a decoration rather than an ashtray. But you have to pay for it; it retails for about $125.

Even in today’s anti-smoking environment, cigars are still seen as a mark of a sophisticated and high-end lifestyle. For the smoker who has to have the right cigar, the right lighter and the right cutter, the options now abound for just the right ashtray. It’s about time.

(Rich Perelman is editor-in-chief of CigarCyclopedia.com, offering comprehensive daily coverage of cigars, accessories, issues, people and prices at www.CigarCyclopedia.com.)

Rich Perelman

4/7/08

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