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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

I Stopped At A Thrift Store Before Work Monday And Spotted This Glossy Yellow And Black Ashtray. Upon Flipping It Over (You ALWAYS Flip 'Em Over!) I Found It To Be A Raymor / Mercer Product! Status: Score!

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Beyond being a Raymor product (they of the Arthur Umanoff product fame) this is just a seriously beautiful piece of pottery.  It had me at that glossy Yellow and Black glaze and asymmetric design.

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I'm guessing that with those two huge divots that this must have been intended as a cigar ashtray.  I

wish that I could find another like it on the web but this one is playin' hard to get.  There's not a lot of

comparables out there. 

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This is yet another lucky piece that has managed to survive the thrift donation process.  There's not a

chip or flea bite in sight.  Any weirdness is just a manufacturer flaw...such as it may be.  But I didn't

see any.  Anybody have any idea how old this might be?

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I was originally going to flip this but now I'm thinking about keeping it and displaying it on one of

the shelves of the Raymor / Umanoff pieces I've recently acquired.  I don't know if it's just a rare and

unusual ashtray or if it's so mundane that no one else has bothered to try and sell one or even share

theirs on a blog, but I think it's fantastic in a pop art / Kartel sorta way.

2 comments:

  1. Raymor existed from about 1940-1980. Most-- but certainly not all-- of the Italian ceramics Raymor imported to the US in the 50s and 60s were quite a bit more decorative than your ashtray. Given the excellent condition, I'd guess your ashtray's 70s/80s.

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  2. Raymor existed from about 1940-1980. Most-- but certainly not all-- of the Italian ceramics Raymor imported to the US in the 50s and 60s were quite a bit more decorative than your ashtray. Given the excellent condition, I'd guess your ashtray's 70s/80s.

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