Crawford Rose Quartz Ashtray

Source from:  cigaraficionado  10/17/2013

A nasty rumor is circulating through the cigar community that the day of smoking glamor is gone.

Not so. To paraphrase Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard: cigars are glamorous, it's the way we smoke them that got tawdry. To fight back against a tide of stogies hastily smoked on back porches with ashes shamefully tapped into a Solo paper cup, Crawford Silver gives us its rose quartz ashtray, a substantial accoutrement that says: this is an elegant pursuit and it's not going anywhere.

Pride is the endgame of this lavish work of craftsmanship—a raw, eye-catching beauty well beyond the means of its utilitarian cousins. Perfect when smoking jackets and brandy snifters are in order, it comes from an English silversmith known for old-school skill sets and whimsical designs.

Your piece begins with a solid block of rose quartz of approximately two cubic feet mined from the province of Jaipur in Northern India. A historied stone, rose quartz has been used in carvings for centuries. Two artisans cut the stone by hand, reducing the block to a perfectly polished ashtray over a period of weeks. Meanwhile, silversmiths in London create the lift-out tray that seats four cigars. The tapper in the center gets a 24-karat-gold wash as a finishing touch, and initials or motifs for the top of the staff can be custom-made to order.

At a price of $6,500 per unit, it's not an impulse buy. This is the crowning centerpiece to a perfected, formal-attire man cave. And if rose quartz isn't quite your style, the piece is available to order in other semiprecious stones, including tigerseye and malachite. Enditem