Brian Heath adapted the ashtray from a cereal bowl, adding notches along the rim to securely hold a cigarette while the smoker wrote or answered the phone. The V-shaped notch also extinguished a cigarette before it burned through and fell outside the ashtray.
Heath Ceramics introduced small and large ashtrays in 1947. Their immediate popularity spurred the development of the individual and jumbo sizes, and Edith Heath designed a canister and lighter as ancillary pieces to complete the set. Not officially part of the original 1947 dinnerware line, the ashtrays allowed Heath to experiment with glazes, making them available in many more colours.
Promoted as “the famous Heath ashtray,” the products were the cornerstone of the company’s business, making up 25 percent of sales. In 1964, the US Surgeon General issued a landmark report linking cigarette smoking with dangerous health effects. Edith and Brian stopped smoking, and the production of ashtrays began to decline.