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Drew Estate Pewter Ashtray Review
3/10/2014
Item: Drew Estate Pewter Ashtray
MSRP: $50.00
Price Paid: $16.00 via CigarBid.com
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Website Description: This handmade pewter ashtray comes from Nicaragua and is the perfect collector’s item for any cigar enthusiast. Sturdy and high in quality, this ashtray features the Drew Estate logo and five fingers. It also boasts a wide and deep bowl that holds plenty of ash. With a limited production status, it’s best to pick one up before this solid, handsomely constructed piece is gone forever.
Getting tired of hosing off the ash on the back patio, I decided it was time to get an ashtray. Being a fan of the Drew Estate products I have tried, I saw this gem on Cigar Bid and thought it would be cool to pick one up. At $16, it is the price of just one of DE’s HTF cigars. I also fell for the typical DE gimmick in the description: “With a limited production status, it’s best to pick one up before this solid, handsomely constructed piece is gone forever.”
I am a solo smoker, so having five fingers is a bit superfluous, but it may come in handy if I ever gain a friend. Unfortunately, I quickly found that only one of the fingers – the one to the left of Undercrown – actually holds a cigar. The rest are angled such that the cigar just slides into the bowl until the ember is resting on the pewter. Also, all of the fingers are slightly different shapes, none of which are round. Some are seemingly molded for box-pressed cigars. I doubt that this is a designed occurrence.
The words surrounding the bowl are poorly defined and difficult for the non-DE fanboy to discern. My girlfriend could only read No. 9 accurately. The (Brooklyn?) bridge logo in the middle is cool, but also a bit fuzzy at the edges. Perhaps there is a fog rolling in.
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The bowl itself is indeed wide, but I wouldn’t call it deep, especially by Stinky standards. Living in a valley, the wind gets pretty strong at times, and still I find myself having to hose down the patio and brushing myself off despite using the ashtray. However, I still consistently use it; I think it’s cool. But it could be better. I believe the wording of “handmade” could be an excuse for imperfect craftsmanship. I would rather a machine made ashtray with perfectly round fingers and legible branding. And, I don’t think that they’ll ever be gone forever, as DE would like you to believe. If you’re in the market for an ashtray, just use an old coffee can and use the $16 to pick up a Liga Privada to ash in it.
