Davidoff Murano Glass Ashtray

With one glaring exception, American cigar consumers have about the most advantageous positions as any cigar consumer. Even in places like California, with high taxes and a ban on some flavored cigars, the situation for consumers is far better than, say, being in Canada or the United Kingdom. The glaring exception is a lack of legal, direct access to Cuban cigars, but on the whole American consumers pay amongst the lowest prices for cigars, have the highest number of buying options, and perhaps most importantly, get direct access to a much wider range of cigars than consumers in other countries.

Not everything cigar-related makes its way to shelves in the U.S. and the same concept applies—probably in greater percentage—to cigar accessories. For example, the Davidoff Murano Glass Ashtray was not sold in the U.S. But thanks to the internet, I saw pictures of it and thought that it looked quite cool. After hemming, hawing and delaying a decision about whether it was a good idea to have three consecutive reviews of Davidoff ashtrays, I decided to purchase one for review. After all, we do try to make this site the cigar blog that we would want to read.

WHAT IS IT?

It’s a glass ashtray with a large circular opening; the exterior of the glass is white, while the interior is one of four colors, to create a contrast. The body of the ashtray slopes away from the opening at the top, meaning the center of gravity is off-axis compared to the center of the bowl’s opening. Unlike most ashtrays which feature defined places to rest a cigar(s), the Davidoff Murano Glass ashtray is essentially a fancy glass bowl. A single removable metal stirrup can be moved around the rim of the bowl, allowing you to decide the configuration of where the cigar rests.

The bowl itself is an oval that ranges from about 5.5 inches to 6.1 inches in diameter. Exterior dimensions at their largest points are 6.9 inches in length, 7.1 inches in width and 1.9 inches in height. The stirrup measures 1.9 inches x 1.1 inches and features a concave curve in which the cigar is to be placed. Altogether, it weighs 1.71 pounds.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

We paid approximately $237 in October 2022. It was priced at €243,80 and the Euro was trading for about 0.971 U.S. dollars.

Each ashtray uses a white glass exterior, though the inside of the bowl is colored either red, gray, blue or this opal color which varies from near-black to brown to olive depending on how the light hits it.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The images produced by Davidoff show the metal stirrup placed at the opposite end of the Davidoff logo. However, I found that to be a rather unusable configuration because of balance. When the stirrup is placed in that position—imagine the Davidoff logo at 12 o’clock and the stirrup at 6 o’clock—it means the stirrup and cigar are as far away from the base of the ashtray as possible. Even with a robusto, this meant the ashtray had the propensity to tip over. I could manipulate where the cigar rests on the stirrup; moving the cigar closer to the inside of the bowl would alleviate the balance problem with some cigars, but with a toro-sized cigar there wasn’t much of a sweet spot to where the cigar would remain on the stirrup without falling in the ashtray, and where the ashtray would avoid tipping. That’s just in a static environment; while smoking, the added force of the cigar being placed on the ashtray meant that it would always fall over with anything but the shortest and lightest cigars.

Moving the stirrup to 4 o’clock or 7 o’clock produced more stability, but the heavier the cigar, the less stable this configuration was. The most stable configuration in terms of the ashtray itself was to turn the stirrup around 180 degrees and place it right over the Davidoff logo. Unfortunately, the stirrup isn’t designed to go this way and will fall into the ashtray itself. The better option was to place the stirrup around 2 o’clock or 10 o’clock, which kept the ashtray from tipping over and meant the stirrup was far less likely to fall inside of the bowl.

In terms of reducing the chances that the cigar or ashtray would fall, the best option was to move the stirrup around the ashtray as I smoked through the cigar. I’d start closer to the 2 o’clock or 10 o’clock positions, and once enough cigar had been turned into ash, I’d move the stirrup towards the 4 o’clock or 7 o’clock to finish off the cigar. That said, I never got through a cigar from start to finish without having some issues.

WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL?

I don’t think there’s a category of cigar accessory where design can be shown off quite like ashtrays—and it’s ashtrays like this that really show that. If you remove the stirrup, this looks like some fancy bowl you could use for nuts, candy, trinkets or just as a decoration. Even with the stirrup, non-smokers would likely do a double-take to figure out what the object was for; that’s something that’s pretty rare and definitely something I like. 

THE GOOD?

• It’s Very Pretty — Beyond pretty, I find the appearance to be very soothing. The way the opening of the bowl disappears into the base is both interesting and relaxing to look at. There are no sharp angles and the ashtray’s unique shape curves very nicely. From a distance, the bowl looks licorice-colored, but as you get closer and move either your head or the bowl itself, different brown and green colors emerge.
• Easy to Clean — It’s glass and has a very wide opening, which makes cleaning pretty easy. While I think it would do fine in the dishwasher once, I’m skeptical about whether the Davidoff logo would survive many dishwasher cycles. But if you needed a full clean, either a dishwasher or soaking the ashtray are options. The stirrup being removable means that cleaning it is also quite easy.
• The Stirrup — While balance issues with the bowl rendered this less functional, I still like the stirrup. When implemented properly, a stirrup will touch less of a cigar than most other ashtrays which means the ash is less likely to be disturbed. The goal of the ashtray is to reduce mess, so the fewer disturbances to the ash the better.
• It’s Hand Blown, Which Means Each One is Unique — Because these are blown by hand, each ashtray will be slightly different. The Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi celebrates beauty in imperfection, and the tiny bubbles at the base of the ashtray really epitomize that.

THE BAD?

• The Ideal Position for the Stirrup Means the Ashtray Tips Over — The best position for the stirrup is the aforementioned 6 o’clock configuration, as far away from the Davidoff logo, i.e. the way Davidoff shows this in its pictures. The metal bottoms on the stirrup can be pinched so that the stirrup locks on tight against the ashtray, meaning that I can turn the ashtray like a DJ spinning a record by holding onto the stirrup. However, once a cigar is placed on the stirrup, the ashtray will almost always tip over. As the cigar gets shorter and therefore lighter, this becomes less and less of an issue.
• The Ideal Position for the Ashtray’s Balance Means the Stirrup Falls Into the Bowl — Moving the stirrup to the 12 o’clock position means that the ashtray will no longer tip over, but the stirrup itself will fall into the ashtray with little force, oftentimes just lifting the cigar out of the ashtray is enough to dislodge the stirrup. In this configuration, regularly I would grab the cigar to take a puff, see the stirrup fall into the ashtray, reattach the stirrup, gently place the cigar on the stirrup, and then watch as the cigar and stirrup fell inside the bowl.
• The Base Has Little Grip — There’s a roughly 3.4 inches x 2.9 area of flat glass for the ashtray to rest on a table or other surface. Unfortunately, it’s remarkably slippery. Not much force is needed to make the ashtray do a 360 like a record spinning in a turntable. Pretty much any direct contact with the ashtray will cause it to at least shake, which oftentimes means my cigar is no longer where I placed it. This made the aforementioned tipping issues even worse because it accentuated the force of lifting a cigar or putting it back down. If I were going to use this ashtray long-term, I would add a small piece of felt to the bottom. That said, the real solution is to find a way to add more weight to the bottom of the ashtray so that both the balance and grip issues can be reduced.
• The Stirrup Gets Quite Warm — Predictably, a still-lit cigar nub on it is going to transfer a decent amount of heat to the metal stirrup it is resting on. It never got hot enough to burn me, but it got warm enough to catch me off guard a few times.

• Minor Imperfections — Beyond the small bubbles at the bottom of the ashtray—something I don’t think is really fair to call a flaw—there were two small visual imperfections. As shown above, inside of the lip of the bowl there was a small—a bit shorter than an inch-long—piece of glass that appeared to have been chipped. I am 99 percent sure this was here when the ashtray arrived. Neither Brooks—who photographed the ashtray—nor I noticed this upon initial inspection because it’s in a place you will never see unless you are really trying to inspect every part of the ashtray. I’m pretty sure I found it one day while grabbing the ashtray to pick it up and felt a section of glass that wasn’t as smooth. There’s also a minor dent—probably the size of a dot from a pen—near the Davidoff logo on the front.
• Fingerprint Magnet — For whatever reason, this type of glass shows fingerprints more than most.

THE COMPETITION

Ever since seeing a picture of the Oh!Val ashtray—more on that below—I’ve been interested in finding an ashtray like the Davidoff Murano Ashtray. I want an ashtray that looks interesting, is designed for a single cigar—making it smaller—and uses a stirrup. In general, I find that stirrups provide a stable enough place for a cigar to rest, but tend to be the smallest point of contact, which means they disturb the cigar the least. The most obvious answer would presumably be a Stinky Cigar Ashtray designed for one cigar. For years, I used a four-cigar Stinky Cigar Ashtray and loved its utility, but I’m not fond of how they look.

I have seen some porcelain ashtrays designed for one cigar and made in Limoges, France that feature a stirrup. S.T.Dupont, Elie Bleu, Davidoff, Hermès and other companies have sold similar ashtrays over the years, but I’m not sure any of the aforementioned companies have one in their current portfolios as most of these ashtrays tend to be for multiple cigars.

Additional Competitors

• Czevitrum Small Ashtray ($280)  — It’s been more than two years since I’ve reviewed these unique glass-blown ashtrays and the small version is still my go-to ashtray. The small version can hold two cigars, though it would be very awkward to share if someone was sitting across from you. With a bit of patience, you can find these ashtrays on Etsy for far less than $250, which is the route I would take.
• Davidoff Royal Ashtray ($290) — Interestingly, Davidoff made a limited number—just 50–of a blue ashtray that is very similar to this Murano Glass Ashtray and was sold in the U.S. in 2016. The major change is that it included a cigar cut-out versus a stirrup. This would seemingly make my issues worse, but I’ve not used this ashtray.
• Oh!Val Cigar Ashtray ($330) — One of these days I am going to buy some accessories from the Japanese brand Oh!Val, but so far I’ve suppressed my urges. This is one of a handful of ashtrays the company currently sells and it would seemingly fit the bill. Unfortunately, I’ve neither used nor seen this ashtray.
• Davidoff Sliding Ashtray ($150) — If you want a single cigar ashtray—it can be used for two cigars at one time—from Davidoff, this is a much better option than the Murano Glass. It’s visually interesting in a much different way though doesn’t really solve the idea of having an ashtray where the cigar is in minimal contact with the ashtray. That said, it’s a bonafide usable ashtray, which is more than I can say about the Murano Glass Ashtray.

SHOULD YOU BUY IT?

Absolutely not.

This is the seventh ashtray I’ve reviewed at halfwheel and the first one where I’ve had to question how usable it is. Normally, I don’t have to think about where I should place the cigar, but because of the balance issues, I found myself not only thinking where the stirrup should be positioned but also having to be extremely careful about how gently I picked up the cigar and placed it back down. The end result is frustrating and messy. If you are hellbent on using this ashtray, I’d recommend finding a way to add weight to the base of the ashtray so that you can place the stirrup in its ideal position while mitigating the ashtray’s propensity to tip over. If you add enough weight, you should fix the tipping issue, but I fear that it would ruin a lot of the aesthetics that drew me to the ashtray in the first place.

Davidoff advertises on halfwheel.