A rare item and one of only 500 made, this is a Moorcroft 'Marston's Ales' Hops pattern ashtray, made as a very limited production for the Marston's brewery in 1985, to celebrate the anniversary of the Brewery. Designed by Walter Moorcroft, a water jug was also produced in the same quantity.
The ashtray uses the later production technique where the 'tubelining' is actually moulded and not applied by hand, similar to Campanula and Geranium.
Because most of these were used in public houses, very few survive and are rarely found. Not easily seen in the photograph, the base carries the Moorcroft England factory mark lightly embossed but clearly visible 'in the flesh'.
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