We made one of our bulk purchases last week. We’ve featured other such ‘job lots’ in previous posts – products as diverse as textiles, magazines, lamps, even candle dowsers. This time it’s vintage packaging.

There were plenty of the classic ‘fancy’ biscuit tins in the collection, but it’s the more day to day product packaging that we gravitate towards.

The interest that packaging generates for collectors comes for a variety of reasons. To start with, there’s the fabulous design and graphics which we love too.

Then there’s the nostalgia factor; there’s such an amazing variety of products – some have fallen by the wayside, others have evolved into more updated versions. The same can be said of the manufacturers themselves.

It’s complete social history laid out before you.

Some items will be purely for display, others can still be used, such as the Blakey’s boot protectors. A perfect, authentic finishing touch to a vintage costume!

Other pieces can be up-cycled for modern use. There are a thousand uses for storage tins of all sizes. They give you a little bit of pleasure every time you have to lift the lid.

There were quite a few matchboxes in the lot. Justin is familiar with some of the boxes from his youth, but others date back over a hundred years – even he can’t remember those!

These early Bryant & May’s Lion Matches are the star of the show. They’re actually Victorian in date – and still have the original matches inside; a rare survivor indeed!

Even if you’re not actually going to use the products, a collection of vintage packaging makes such a wonderful display – both eye-catching and interesting. It looks great on a kitchen shelf or in a glass fronted case. You can even find old shop display cases which work really well.

In fact, when we look at them all grouped together, we’re a bit tempted to start a little collection ourselves – a couple of items might mysteriously disappear!