Manufacturer: Syracuse China
User: Recess Club – Detroit
Date of ashtray/matchstand: circa 1927 – 1950s
Notes: The Recess Club opened in 1928 and was founded by 12 prominent Detroit businessmen to establish a luncheon club patterned after similar New York and European clubs. According to a club brochure published in the 1970s, its grand opening was delayed while its location, the Fisher Building – designed by Albert Kahn – was completed. "On November 7, 1928, five hundred members, many of them automotive pioneers, attended the gala opening of The Recess. Since then the club has grown to over 1,500 members."
A blurb (shown above) in The Detroit Free Press dated Nov. 4, 1928, said: "Quartered on the eleventh floor of the new Fisher building, the Recess, Detroit's first luncheon club, will open formally Wednesday, November 7 … The Recess is similar in character to the Broadstreet, the Bankers' and the Mid-Day clubs of New York … The Fisher building was selected as the logical location on account of its accessibility and the club officials took over a large portion of the eleventh floor."
The club's logo was designed by Harvey G. Luce. According to an article by Marguerite Riley of Detroit Free Press dated April 23, 1950 (shown above), the Recess Club printed a members' magazine called Time Out, with what she described as "a good-humored article by Harvey G. Luce, in which he tells how he happened to design the club crest back in 1928." After hearing a description of the type of club the Recess was going to be, Luce wrote: "I designed what is rather a stylistic emblem depicting three businessmen on their way to lunch, symbolized by the fowl and fish above and below in their respective elements, appropriately, I thought, suggested by the stylized form of their background. To my amazement, the design was accepted by the Board of Governors."
An article in the Detroit Free Press dated Oct. 15, 1959, (shown above) covers the Recess Club getting the "Glamor Treatment. It was last refurbished in 1951 – by George W. Walker, Ford's head of styling. This summer it was completely redone by Harley Earl Association. Mr. Earl is the retired GM styling chief. It is rightly assumed that GM and Ford officials comprise a good portion of the Club's membership.
"The dining room has been enlarged to seat 357, the windows have been replaced with handsome grilled panels. There's a nice feeling of intimacy achieved in the room with wood and mirrored columns, jutting wing areas which seem to divide it into small areas. The dance floor, a part of the dining area, has been doubled in size.
"The men's bar, the only place where women are never allowed, is handsome with it new black ox hide covered furniture, the panels of mahogany, rosewood, walnut, lacewood, paldao and industrial cork.
"Teak paneling and white formica have replaced the marble in the lobby and the high ceiling has been cut with a drop ceiling of perforated aluminum.
"Stage lighting with dimming switches adds a dramatic touch to the rooms and foyer, where art masterpieces are hung. Even the silver, china and glassware are new."
A Detroit Free Press story dated Aug. 31, 1990, described the closing of the Recess Club. "In a letter to the roughly 600 members remaining in a roster that in the 1960s reached 1,500, club president B. Jefferey Cornish explained that an outside consultant had confirmed the reasons to fold.
"Many luncheon clubs are experiencing the same thing because the way business is done has changed."
Syracuse's Old Ivory body ashtray and matchstand with a medium green band around the rim. The raised match holder has the club's logo on the front which has two octagonal orange lines around a center drawing of three orange figures walking with drawings of birds overhead and fish underneath on green backgrounds.
Sources:
Detroit Free Press dated Nov. 4, 1928 – blurb about club's opening
Detroit Free Press dated April 23, 1950 – story about club's magazine
Detroit Free Press dated Oct. 15, 1959 – story about remodeling
Detroit Free Press dated Aug. 31, 1990 – story about closing
Contributors
Roland Burritt: ID and matchbook photos
Charles H. Sovine: ashtray/matchstand photos
Ed Phillips: author