Tobacco.org

Remember ashtrays? They're a smokin' hot collectible nowadays 

Someday in the distant future, an archaeologist will dig up an ashtray and wonder, "What is this thing?"

With smoking down by more than half in the past 40 years, ashtrays are going the way of the dinosaur in homes and businesses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20.9 percent of Americans smoked in 2005, down from 42.4 percent in 1965.

It's hard to believe, in these days of making smokers societal pariahs, that smoking was once seen as sophisticated, something done with stylish accouterments. . . .

Will today's ashtrays be collector's items somewhere down the road? Probably not the made-in-China one from the discount store, but there are some that will be valuable, said Kovel.

Many dish collections made in England still include ashtrays, she said. European makers of porcelain, stoneware and glass still make ashtrays, and collectors of those makers would want them, as well as ashtray collectors, she said.

"Ashtrays in general are still under the radar in terms of value," Kovel said.

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