Featured sterling "flower pot" matches holders ca.1960's

Does anybody remember these little holders? I just unwrapped one (forgot I had them...) and it brought back memories of my Mom's dinner parties - and of going to the jewelry store with her to buy more "inserts". I think I have at least a half dozen of them still - probably packed away with most of my other silver curiosities...

The "pot" is about 1 1/4" tall. The "ashtray" base is about 2 1/2" across.

Just wondering if anyone remembers who made them? They're marked STERLING and nothing else. (Those are lines of tarnish, not markings, next to the word STERLING.)

The inserts are wood and have a match striker on the base.

 

Never saw those before... very cool.
I hope someone can help you with the right info.

 

I think this is a shot glass, but someone has used it for matches. IMO

 

Thanks, Jolly, but no, that's not it. These were a "real thing" - they were supposed to look like pots of flowers. The sterling "pot" has no base. It's open at the bottom so that the striker on the insert is exposed.


Extra inserts - with matches attached - were available for purchase at specific places, like the jewelry store where my Mom bought them. My parents entertained frequently, and tho neither of them smoked, we had all sorts of accoutrements for smokers when I was a kid!

 

No problem, you learn something new every day!

 

Isn't that cute.
I too, have never seen that.

 

Me either, but then my parents didn't allow tobacco smoke in the house. We did have some ashtrays, but they were all railroad memorabilia.

 

@DragonflyWink

Cheryl, just wondering - do you have any thoughts on this one?
Thanks!
-C-

 

Cute novelty individual ashtrays and match-holders - don't recall seeing them before, but they're just the type of thing, as you said, that would have been sold at jewelry and gift shops in the mid 20th century. Might have been made by a large manufacturer, but the only way to attribute would be to find others with a trademark - more likely that they were produced by an anonymous jobber and wholesaled to the retailers, not uncommon to find just the 'Sterling' mark.

My Mom had individual ashtrays that matched her dinnerware and set them at the table for after-dinner cigarettes - she wasn't a smoker either...

~Cheryl

 

Thanks, Cheryl!