Leehing

Leehing

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Vintage Korean Matchboxes, from the website: Daily Korean Stuff

A quote from the site

"The collecting of match-related items is a legitimate and widespread hobby known as phillumeny. I am not a  collector myself, but the cuteness of these old Korean matchboxes was so overwhelming that I had to post about them. There used to be a considerable diversity of Korean matches manufacturers, with their total number exceeding 300 at one point. Each had their own designs and sometimes marketed different brands with different packagings. The market has been declining over the past few years, and the design of contemporary matchboxes has become a lot more bland."



All rights reserved to: http://www.daily-korean-stuff.com (lost link)

Japanese Safety Match labels - A collector story

A quote from the site http://designrelated.com/inspiration/view/Karen/entry/4483/japanese-safety-match-labels, by Karen Horton:


"From my collection, I've pulled out some very old, vintage matchbox labels from Japan because of a common characteristic. All of the designs incorporate English text reading either "Safety Match" or "Safety Matches." Based on seeing similar labels featured in an old issue of Graphis magazine, my guess would be to date these matchbox labels somewhere between 1882 through 1912.

The informative, yet opinionated piece written by Hideyuki Oka implies that the designs from this period were heavily influenced by Western culture and often carried animal motifs to be favorable as an export. Even if these designs aren't indicative of high-end Japanese graphic design, I gravitate to them for their aesthetic appeal.

Pictured in this post are just a few scans out of my collection of vintage Japanese matchbox covers. "


All rights reserved to: http://designrelated.com/inspiration/view/Karen/entry/4483/japanese-safety-match-labels




 I managed to get these 2 beautiful labels too, although the Dog and Gramophone label has a different colors. Maybe one day I will manage to get the green one too...




Sunday, November 27, 2011

Older and newer lovely matchboxes from Spain - thanks to my Facebook's friend Juan Manuel Gómez Pradera from Madrid, Spain

Customs

Wooden boxes with wax matches

Wild animals of today

Old horsey clocks

More customs

2 quiet dogs

2 something

Butterfly, butterfly Flying into the wind...

Scary Dinosaurs

Brave Toreros

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Vintage Handouts from Bars and Night clubs in Japan, Hong Kond and China, which were sent to me by Mr. Jerry Manley from California


Mr. Jerry Manley saw my name on the Internet regarding matches of Japan, and he sent me an email, says that: "I recently found a shoebox of match books/boxes that I had collected while in the Navy 60 years ago.  I went there several times from 1952-1956 and picked up a few each time even though I didn't smoke.

Also, there are a few old advertisement single page handouts that are included and both amusing and supposedly provocative.

I'm afraid that these are not in great condition but they are interesting both in the colors and the wording which was kind of semi-literate in those days.

if you would like them I would be happy to send them to any address you preferred.  I'm only sorry they still didn't have their newness and some hidden video of the times we had in those wild, wild days only 7 years after WW2."


I was very surprised receiving his mail, and said that I would be happy to have them, and willing to pay for the shipment to Israel.


Jerry's answer was: "don't worry about the postage as I'll take care of that.  I'm just sorry I had these secured away for 60 years and they've faded and have some peeling.  Some I just threw away because I felt they were unusable but none are perfect.  If you can't use them feel free to discard them and you won't hurt my feelings.

The funny thing about looking at the matches and the handouts is that I can remember about 50% of the bars. That shows you where my 17-21 year old mind took me.

I also bought a suit from the tailors of Hong-Kong that advertised in on one of the sheets back in about 1952-53 and it was beautiful. The problem was it didn't fit me so I discounted it to a buddy of mine and he was the one that was happy.  Good luck to you!"


Few days ago I received his parcel. I was so excited to open it, and to discover inside these wonderful Handouts, some American Pin-up bars lovely matchbooks, Matchbooks from Night-clubs in Mexico, and old wooden beautiful Matchboxes from Japan (that will be displayed on later post), all in a great condition!


I really don't know how to thank this amazing man....





Monday, November 21, 2011

Vintage Matchbooks are like ‘time capsules’ that capture the aesthetic of the 1930′s - A short time collector

A short time collector...: "The closest I’ve ever come to collecting anything was a five day encounter in 1993 with the idea that accumulating matchbooks might be my go. Unfortunately my short attention span meant my collection only ever consisted of two before I tired of the idea.
Even though I didn’t get very far with my collection, I’ve continued to carry a torch for vintage matchbooks – every cover is like a mini pop masterpiece. Take these treasures that were recently unearthed at a NYC flea market. Made by Lion Match USA, these matchbooks are like ‘time capsules’ that capture the aesthetic of the 1930′s.
Are you a collector? What have you had more success than me in amassing?"



Saturday, November 19, 2011

Bill's matchboxes - A collector of READHEADS


Photographer David Paul sent me some proof sheets of several hundred Redheads matchbox lids that he photographed recently as part of the ongoing documentation of the museum's objects. They were collected during the 1950s-1970s by Bill Boyd and form part of the William Boyd Childhood Collection, which includes most of the Bill's childhood possessions. Bill was an avid collector, and fortunately for us, his mother Lillian kept his collections long after Bill had grown up.
Like David, I think the illustrations on the matchboxes are beautiful and fascinating snapshots of the time. There are several sets – marine creatures, native animals, famous explorers, Queensland's centenary (1959), history of transport and flags of the world, mythology and more. Redheads are now made in Sweden but back then were made by Bryant and May (or Brymay). Brymay was an English company that began manufacturing locally in 1909 in a factory in Cremorne, Richmond.

Special packaging, swapcards and bonus toys are a marketing idea that has proved successful for years. Pester power is nothing new: children badger their parents to buy a certain brand of tea, breakfast cereal or matches so that they can complete the set. In the pre-war mania of cigarette card collecting, there are stories of kids who would wait outside shops and pounce on emerging adults to beg for the cards from their newly-purchased pack of smokes.
Bill Boyd's matchboxes started me thinking about the nature of childrens' collections. Lots of kids collect things – stamps, coins, swapcards – but why?  I know a family where each child was charged with nominating something to collect so they'd have something to keep themselves amused on road trips. Another colleague collected stamps and reckons his mother introduced him to the hobby so he'd learn about geography and organisation. And why do some people continue their collections while others abandon them? I collect entirely different things now than I did as a kid, but that probably reflects financial independence.

I wonder how Bill got so many matchboxes? Perhaps he swapped them at school or family friends saved them for him. I imagine he didn't have much money to buy what he wanted and matchboxes were free and readily available. When smoking was more popular and before the invention of disposable cigarette lighters, there were probably matches in every pocket.
For Bill, perhaps they were important because they were objects that no one else controlled – no one else chose them on his behalf, or could tell him how to arrange or store or preserve them. These sorts of things are very important when you're a powerless kid and grown-ups dictate almost everything about your world.
What did you collect when you were a kid? How did your collection start? Do you still have it? Perhaps you'd like to upload it to Collectish?
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