Cubo Ashtray Large

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”

Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.

Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.

It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.

Once a near-universal tabletop accessory, many antique, new and vintage ashtrays have taken on an entirely new purpose in today’s homes.

Whereas these formerly ubiquitous objects were associated with smoking, drinking, gambling and other vices, a well-designed and interesting ashtray is a candy dish, coaster or cocktail garnish receptacle in today’s interiors. But don’t discount its initial function. Amid your carefully curated coastal chic California decor, for example, a stone ashtray can help you manage the ashes that accumulate while you’re burning your morning incense. Old glass ashtrays, which are quite popular and easily found in free-form, organic shapes, can be a purely decorative final touch when styling a coffee table, whether you’ve filled it with wrapped lemon-drop candies or not.

In the postwar years, the democratization of luxury led to an explosion in the number of well-designed ashtrays, and there are many mid-century modern ashtrays to choose from on 1stDibs. (It’s no coincidence that sculptor Isamu Noguchi devised his “Dymaxion” version, which he hoped would make him rich, in 1945. Alas, it turned out to be too difficult to mass-produce.) The design collection of the Museum of Modern Art includes ashtrays by Carlo Scarpa (Murano glass, 1950–59); Achille Castiglioni (stainless steel with spring-like inserts, 1970); Masayuki Kurokawa (rubber and steel, 1973) and more. Smoking declined in popularity in the 1970s and ’80s, after the surgeon general’s warning began appearing on cigarette packs, but designers were still crafting ashtrays through the end of the century (especially outside the United States).

On 1stDibs, browse a collection of antique, new and vintage ashtrays that includes everything from modern and minimalist cigar ashtrays to outwardly ornate Art Deco ashtrays that evoke the opulence and elegance of the 1920s.