Rare Porcelain Hand Painted Bird Ashtray

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Vintage Artisan Ashtrays will never be produced again. This hand painted porcelain piece is available at Time’s Tin Cup’s Etsy Shop!

The first known ashtray was invented in the late 1400’s. Upon King Henry V receiving a gift of cuban tobacco from Spain, King Henry V had an ash container commissioned.

Ashtrays; were at one time, works of art used as home decor focal points. Just like this hand painted porcelain ashtray available at Times Tin Cup’s Etsy Shop.

With the new millennium promoting the dangers of smoking; vintage artisan ashtrays will never be produced again. What remains can easily be; or become, one of a kind.

The dangers of smoking were not always known. Tobacco was embraced as a social norm. Tobacco was even promoted for medicinial use. Between 1537 and 1559, books published commonly referred to the medicinal uses of tobacco and promoted its therapeutic application in general bodily ills, catarrh, colds, and fevers, as an aid to digestion and in prevention of hunger and thirst, as a purgative and as a narcotic. Medicinal apparatus was even produced to treat these ills with tobacco.

The medical community did not just apply tobacco for medicinal use; they also promoted smoking cigarettes.

Doctors promoted cigarettes, medical treatments involved tobacco, cartoon characters smoked, famous actors promoted brands, and art deco and fashion were created as accessories to cigarettes.

Time’s Tin Cup neither supports nor condemns cigarettes. Time’s Tin Cup just enjoys sharing historic content and tidbits about items available at 410 Main Street Boonton, New Jersey.