Name/Title
Cast metal advertising ashtray, Královopolská (Brno, Czechoslovakia)Entry/Object ID
2025.1.128Description
A small circular ashtray of cast light metal (aluminum or a similar silvery alloy), with a shallow bowl, an everted rim, and two cigarette rests notched into the rim. The interior back wall is impressed with the maker's emblem: a toothed cogwheel/gear device encircling the legend "KRÁLOVOPOLSKÁ" with "BRNO" below — the logo of the Královopolská engineering works of Brno. The metal has an unpolished, slightly granular cast surface, now scratched, scuffed, and dulled with use. The form is the standard mid-century round metal ashtray; as a piece carrying a company logo it functioned as promotional/advertising or commemorative ware.Use
Belonged to Leopoldo Arús CaraballoCollection
The Cabrera Arús family collection, Leopoldo Arús Caraballo collectionMade/Created
Manufacturer
Královopolská strojírnaPlace
City
BrnoCountry
CzechoslovakiaRegion
Eastern EuropeContinent
EuropeNotes
Maker
Královopolská (Královopolská strojírna), the heavy-engineering works in the Královo Pole district of Brno, Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic). The firm traces to 1889 (founded as Lederer-Porges/Königsfelder Maschinenfabrik), was nationalized in 1945, and was a leading Czechoslovak machine-building enterprise — producing cranes, steel structures, heat exchangers, reactors, and heavy industrial equipment — through the socialist period. The ashtray is branded promotional ware bearing the company's cogwheel logo; the actual casting may have been made by or for the firm.
Date
Undetermined; consistent with the socialist-era (post-1945, pre-1990) period of the nationalized Královopolská enterprise. No date is cast into the piece. The branded promotional character and the company's nationalized-era identity point to a mid-to-late 20th-century date, compatible with the collection range, but nothing fixes an exact year.
Place of Origin
Brno, Czechoslovakia (per the "KRÁLOVOPOLSKÁ / BRNO" mark).Inscription/Signature/Marks
Notes
Impressed cogwheel/gear device enclosing "KRÁLOVOPOLSKÁ" (curved within the gear) and "BRNO" (below center).Materials
Material
aluminumMaterial Notes
Materials
Cast light metal — aluminum or aluminum-type alloy (silvery, lightweight cast appearance; not confirmed by testing).
Technique
Sand- or die-cast metal, with the logo integrally cast/impressed; finished with cigarette-rest notches in the rim.Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Leopoldo Arús CaraballoNotes
ownerRelated Places
Place
City
HavanaCountry
CubaRegion
Caribbean, Central AmericaNotes
usePlace
City
BrnoCountry
CzechoslovakiaRegion
Eastern EuropeContinent
EuropeNotes
productionResearch Notes
Notes
The object thus illustrates both the everyday material culture of the period (a household/office smoking accessory) and the wider geography of Cuba's socialist-bloc trade ties.
Královopolská remains an operating engineering company in Brno today.Created By
María A. Cabrera ArúsCreate Date
February 9, 2026Updated By
María A. Cabrera ArúsUpdate Date
June 18, 2026
