Bi-Colour Crystal Ashtray in Ruby Red and Iced Blue — Circa 1970

This ashtray is an exercise in chromatic drama and technical mastery. A deep ruby red inner bowl sits within an encasing layer of iced blue crystal, the two colours forming a vivid contrast that shifts and deepens as the light moves through the glass. The form is a rounded cushion square — broad, low, and stable — with four symmetrically placed notched rests around the rim. The quality of the crystal is evident in its clarity, weight, and the precision of the colour gradation between the red core and the blue surround, which shows no muddying or blending at the interface.

The technique employed here — layering differently coloured molten glasses to create a composite piece in which distinct colour zones remain separated and visible — is associated above all with the glassblowing tradition of Murano, the Venetian island whose workshops perfected this approach over centuries and brought it to new expressive heights in the mid-twentieth century. The Italian designers and glassblowers of the 1950s and 1960s elevated the ashtray into a form worthy of serious artistic ambition, producing pieces whose sculptural presence and chromatic intensity gave them a status independent of their original function.

At 19 centimetres square and 6.5 centimetres deep, this ashtray has a generous presence on a table or sideboard. The combination of ruby and blue — warm and cool, opaque and translucent — gives it a jewel-like quality that makes it as effective as a purely decorative object as it would have been in use. It reads equally well displayed alone and as part of a grouping of coloured glass objects.

A beautiful example of mid-century decorative glasswork, this ashtray combines technical refinement with a boldness of colour that has ensured pieces of this type a lasting place in design-conscious interiors.