Elie Bleu Fire Horse Obsidian Ashtray — Brown, 3 Cigars

Elie Bleu Fire Horse Obsidian Ashtray — Brown, 3 Cigars

Obsidian is born from heat. When felsic lava meets air at the right velocity and temperature, the silica content prevents crystal formation and the result is volcanic glass — sharp, dense, lustrous, the material that predates every other refined stone in human use. Mount Ararat's obsidian has been valued since the Neolithic period for the edge it holds and the surface it reveals under polishing. Elie Bleu takes that material and shapes it into an ashtray for three cigars, the hand polishing bringing out what the formation left behind: depth, warmth, and the individual character that makes each block different from the last. The brown version carries a tone that the black does not — the warm, earthy spectrum of the stone's iron content made visible, a surface that captures light with a different quality than black obsidian's mirror intensity.

Brown Obsidian / Mount Ararat

Where black obsidian is defined by its depth and opacity, brown obsidian — sometimes called mahogany obsidian — carries the warm, amber-to-earth tones produced by higher iron and magnesium concentrations in the volcanic material. The same process, the same mountain, the same hand work: but a surface that reads differently in the light, that catches the warmth of a room rather than reflecting it, that places the Fire Horse collection in a register closer to the tobacco itself — to the cigars that will rest in the three carved indents, to the wood of the humidor that stored them. Each piece of brown obsidian is singular: the exact distribution of warm tones and dark ground is fixed at the moment of formation and cannot be replicated.

Three Cigar Rests / Monolithic Form

Three cigar rests are carved into the single block, proportioned for the range of vitolas a collection contains. The one-piece construction provides the stability and mass that the format requires — the ashtray does not shift under use, does not reveal seams or assembly points, presents as the solid object it is. At 17.5 × 17.5 × 4 cm, it sits at the table with the quiet authority of a material that has been forming for four million years and will outlast the occasion, and every occasion that follows.

Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.