Creative packaging design: Matchbox labels

Collecting match books and matchbox labels is almost as popular, and just as much fun, as philately. A person that collects them is known as a phillumenist.

There’s a fascinating history about the development of safety match technology – and the banning of white phosphorus (a hugely dangerous chemical) as an ingredient in their manufacture.

The designs of matchbox labels can point to their age and era of production.

There are safety matches (that can only be lit by striking on a specific surface), impregnated (with paraffin) safety matches, long matches and cooks’ matches. In the past, matches were usually ‘foreign’; manufactured in Sweden, Finland, Italy, Belgium and Czechoslovakia.

There was a time when every bar and restaurant supplied customers with their branded matches. Free advertising for them and a free souvenir for you! With the advent of smoking bans around the world, they’ve become a thing of the past.

Matches, matchboxes and matchbooks are still very popular, however; they’re an essential accessory for owners of wood-burning stoves and ranges and fans of room candles.

_{Various vintage matchboxes}

_{Original Cooks Matches}

_{You Light up My Life}

_{Emma Bridgewater Extra Long Matches Black Toast Strike a Light matches | Diptyque Temple des Mousses scented matches}

_{Metal matchbox tin}

Price Points: Everlasting lighters

I love all kinds of gadgets, so when I happened across everlasting lighters I thought, “Those are really practical and so cute!”.

#1 and #2 both resemble boxes of matches; however, the ‘boxes’ are reservoirs that you keep filled with lighter fluid and the ‘match’ is a permanent wick similar to one you’d find in an oil lamp. The Match Lite was modelled on the vintage 1960s Japanese Mitsugiri permanent match box and lighter.

Unlike a wooden match, these matches can be used hundreds of times on a single tank of gas. And also unlike a traditional box of matches they ignite perfectly well if left abandoned in a dusty drawer for years and years. One person reported finding one belonging to his granddad that was bought 40 years prior – and sprung to life on the first attempt!

The ‘Friendly Swede’ works by a different method to the other two. The shorter ‘key’ is struck along the length of the longer rod. It’s similar to the caveman approach of striking of a pair of flinty rocks together to produce sparks in order to ignite a tangle of dry twigs or leaves.

All three are tiny enough to pop into the pocket of a rucksack or waterproof coat and forget about it – until it’s retrieved in an emergency scenario such as may happen when you’re at a festival, wild camping in the wilderness… or just having a barbecue at home and you can’t find any matches!

Permanent metal match box and lighter: £2.49, eBay
Vintage 1970s Match Lite striker lighter: £11.58, Etsy
Steel ferrocerium stick with striker: £17.99, Amazon

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