Trays chic

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/11/2010 (5454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAST month, Kimberly Temple­ton threw a Mad Men party to toast the final episode of the Emmy Award-winning drama’s fourth season.

Templeton, 33, went online to research what type of music to play (Herb Alpert, the Ventures), what sort ofcocktails to serve (Manhattans, vodka gimlets), and whatstyle of clothes to wear (“No jeans!”). As to decor, well, why don’t we letour hostesstell that side of the story…

“I had just refurnished my house in mid-century modern, which was timely,”says Templeton, who dressed up as bold and sassy Joan Harris (née Holloway) for the occasion. “I bought a lot of teak furniture from Hoopers Bazaar in the Exchange and (from) Scandinavian.Modern, a Winnipeg-based web business. My basement was pretty retro-looking to begin with.”

Only glitch: Templeton is a non-smoker. And one of the basic requirementsof a Mad Men soiree, she read, is to have lots ofashtrays on hand for all of the nicotine-powered Don Draper wannabes in attendance.

Enter”Sal,” the owner of Selim’s Antiques on Corydon Avenue. Salloaned Templeton a slew of ashtrays after she rented some era-appropriate centerpieces and bowls from him.

“My favourite (ashtray) was an old stand-up one that plugged in — so tacky and hilarious,” Templeton says. “Another was a glass-blown dolphin, jumping in mid-air.”

Templeton stayed true to her theme throughout the evening, right down to the Flaming-Astro-Weenie-Pineapple (“Google it!”) she served up at midnight. But there was one difference between her get-together and an actual episode of Mad Men. “I didn’t allowsmoking inside the house,” Templeton says. “I filled the ashtrays with jelly beans and bridge mix instead.”

Turns out that was a savvy move: According to CigarAficiando.com — a websitedevoted to smoking-related collectibles — vintage ashtrays can be worth hundreds of dollars, providing they haven’t been used for their intended purpose. Burn marks from cigarettes are almost impossible to remove, the site reports, so investors should steer clear of stained or discoloured specimens. Also, now that there are fewer and fewer places where people can light up, ashtrays are quickly approaching endangered-species status, which has driven up the value of everything from ornate ashtraysattached towrought iron stands to pedestrian glass ashtrays — the sort thatused to gracethe tables of every greasy spoonfrom hereto Tobacco Road.

Darlene Doerksen has been collecting ashtrays for 32 years. The two-time grandmother concentrates on souvenir ashtrays, likeher plastic one from Tennessee that reads, “Somebody visited Nashville and all I got was this lousy ashtray.” What’s more, Doerksen’s collection — which numbers in the hundreds — is as economical as it is eye-catching. Every ashtray save for one she picked up in Alexandria, Minn. (“Alexandria: Easy to get to, hard to leave”) was a gift from a friend or family member.

“It all started when I was workingin the coffee shop at theCrown Valley General Store in New Bothwell,” says Doerksen, who now lives in St. Vital. “One of my regularsmentioned he wasgoing on a trip to Iraq andI told himthat he had to bring me something back.”

That “something” turned out to be a brass ashtraywith a depiction of an Iraqi village scene sculpted into its weighted base.

“Next thing I knew, customers were giving me ashtrays on a regular basis,” says Doerksen. (Uh, excuse me, but how did anybody know that you collected ashtrays in the first place?) “Let’s just say I’m not usually short of words when I’m talking to people.”

Doerksen (cigarette brand of choice: Canadian Classic) now has ashtrays from every corner of the globe, including Russia, New Zealand, Thailand, Kenya and Venezuela. They range from kitschy (a sombrero from Puerto Vallarta) to simple (a hand-crafted clay ashtray from India) to flamboyant (a scale-model replica of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, with the church doubling as a lighter).

Others fall under the category of “borrowed.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure somebody slipped this one into their suitcase. In fact, I know they did,” Doerksen says, reaching for an ashtray advertising the Starlight Motel in Flagstaff, Ariz.

(Our favourite? A cheesy number from Las Vegas boasting an illustration of who wefigureto beNeil Diamond, circa Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show.)

“I’m still trying to figure out a proper way to display them all,” Doerksen says, mentioning that a good chunk of her collection is still sitting in boxes, in a bedroom closet. “My brother is a woodworker, so I’m hoping maybe one day he’ll build me a corner cabinet or something.”

Doerksen doesn’t refer to books like Nancy Wanvig’s Collector’s Guide to Ashtrays to try to gauge how much her collection might be worth. It’s doubtful, however, that any of hers would command $3,230 — the amount somebody paid for a rare figural ashtray from Catalina Island, Calif., in the shape of a bear. Or the $4,000-plus that another collector recently forked out for 23 non-descript ashtrays that used to belong to actress and Lucky Strike poster girl Marlene Dietrich.

“These days, I travel for my job from Ontario to Saskatchewan, but I’m certainly not what you’d call a big traveller by any stretch of the imagination,” says Doerksen. “So I guess you could say this collection is my own little way of seeing the world.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca