Cambridge Hat Ashtray
by Phyllis Smith
Issue No. 95 - March 1981
A couple of months ago, Gwen Shumpert from Mississippi (columnist for the "Glass Review") sent me this photo (below) of a small glass hat ashtray, in what looks like the Cambridge Carmen color. She wanted to know if it was Cambridge.
My first reaction was to give a definite YES! After all, we have six
of these cute little hats sitting on our shelf in what looks like the
Cambridge colors of topaz, royal blue, carmen, crystal, willow blue and
pink. But, wanting to be absolutely certain of my statement, I decided
to first check up on my references.
The only reference we can find for this ashtray hat is to be found in Welker's Color Book1, plate 15, row 4, item 6. We contacted Lynn Welker and he felt sure that the hat was definitely Cambridge, and that he could give us a catalog number as proof positive. After searching his research material, he could not find a reference for us. However, we can attest to the fact that the bottom of the hat ashtray is identical to the bottom of the Top Hat Cigarette holder which can be found pictured in Welker's Catalog Reprint 1, on page 28.
At this point, we can only draw the conclusion that it is entirely possible that this hat ashtray was produced by the Cambridge Glass Company - because of the Cambridge colors it has been found in and because it just looks like it is Cambridge glass!
If anyone has anything further they can add to this mystery, please let us hear from you. Until proven otherwise, we are going to continue displaying our six hats on our Cambridge Glass shelf!.