4 ashtrays

dear all

these 4 kooky ashtrays, any idea when and where they were made? i think my mum said that her uncle gave them to her, so could be 1960s? no mark or signature.

regards
phaik hooi

 

Hi Phaik:- These are novelty ashtrays and the 60's sounds about right. I believe they were called "smoking ashtrays".
The concept is, if you insert a lit cigarette into the tray, the smoke will emit from a hole in the figure. In your instances, it would be the bowl, the gun and the pipe...can't quite make out where the vent is on your last character.
There are collectors for this novelty and as I have some "Made in Occupied Japan"
they were also produced in the 50's, some probably even earlier than that.

 

thanx! was wondering what to call them. and now i know

 

Hole is in the mouth on the last one...Mexican playing guitar.........

 

Those are adorable! Quirky sells well.

 

Agree, these are fun! So unusual!

 

I'm going to guess that, since they are a set of 4 humorous figures & are designed to hold only 1 cigarette each, they were sold as card party accessories. Both smoking & bridge were common in the late 50s - early 60s. Even though neither of my parents smoked or played bridge, we still owned a card table & chairs and a set of 4 small ashtrays, each shaped like one of the suits of cards, all acquired in that time period.

 

We use a set of Heisey Ridgeleigh card ashtrays to keep track of the trump suit when we play euchre. With four senior citizens we need all the help we can get.
Don