We saw these Arnolfo di Cambio Smoke wineglasses ($75) and thought they were pretty special.
Upon further investigation we discovered that the smoke glass, which was designed in 1964, is for exactly that: Smoking. The idea behind the stem is that you can hold your wine and cigarette in one hand allowing you to gesticulate freely with the other.
As an ex-smoker we think this is shameful. As a design nut, we almost want to light up again just to justify picking up a set of these beauties.
Dang, these are swank!
Oh boy.
I can imagine a whole life to go with those glasses.
It's a life that seems to take place in black-and-white, and the air quality is lousy... but I think I just saw Humphrey Bogart over there by the hors-d'oeuvre table, wearing a dinner jacket and chatting up Myrna Loy.
...and I see these glasses being rocked by people like Hef, Robert Evans, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Tom Ford, Halston or Calvin (slick alpha males and painfully tasteful design queens). In a smoked-glassed, mirror-and-chromed, black-leather lounge. Surrounded by elegantely-wasted hooker/waitress/model/actress types. But that's just me.
How exactly would you take a sip from the glass when your smoke is resting on the shelf? Seems like a fire hazard to me.
NG, I don't think you rest the cigarette on the ledge. I think it's that the off-center stem gives you room to keep the cigarette between your fingers as you hold the glass with the same hand. You don't put the glass down -- until the Bryll-creamed white-jacketed busboy or the waitress/hooker/actress type offers a tray -- because whatever decade it takes place, it's definitely the kind of party where everyone carries a drink at all times.
There are *other* kinds of parties?!?
Joe Colombo (who designed these) was a smoker, but more importantly Italian--he not only wanted a glass that allowed him to drink and hold a cigarette with one hand, he wanted to have the other hand free to gesticulate as he spoke!
While I can figure out how easy it would be to drink and hold the cigarette, I haven't quite figured out the smoking part while holding the glass. Does it have something to do with wrist action spinning the glass to one side? Because I'm just seeing myself hitting myself in the face with the glass repeatedly, trying to get a puff. Or maybe elbowing someone trying to rotate my arm to that smoking angle.
Does the creator have a cousin who invented the hands-free twin-beer-can hat?
Here's an illustration of how it's supposed to be held:
http://www.designboom.com/history/joecolombo/sm3.jpg