Phillumenist {noun} – a person who collects matchboxes or matchbooks labels, from the latin ‘philo’ (love of) and ‘lumen’ (light). How wonderful.
I have collected and been fascinated by matchboxes for years – for me, it’s the typography, the retro feel of the boxes, the satisfying flick of a match across the stripe…and maybe it’s also the thrill of getting them for free in hotels and restaurants?!
It wasn’t until I shared my collection on Instagram that I realised it was a ‘thing’ – the biggest collectors in the world happen to be in Japan (of course, my favourite place!), I discovered a whole secondhand market on eBay and pretty much every day I was being tagged in pictures of matches (@matchbookdiaries is a great Instagram account to follow, by the way!).
In my opinion, a box of matches isn’t just a marketing product, it’s a thing of beauty. They are actually useful and I always have them dotted around my home for candles, and the longer matches can be works of art. I remember walking around La Galleries Lafayette in Paris for work just before Christmas a few years ago, it was packed with Christmas gifts of designer handbags, fragrances and the newest accessories. I couldn’t afford anything in the store but came home with a box of matches (featuring Hokusai’s famous ‘The Wave of Kanagawa’ artwork) – it was my entry level item and it was beautiful. Even empty, I still keep the box on a shelf and it fits in with my collection of ‘stuff’, art and memories.
When thinking about trying new things at the beginning of the year, I started to think about bringing a product to market and matches were the only thing I could really think about. I am so passionate about them and love that they are an affordable luxury, yet useful, item. And then I thought about the combination of artwork, female artists and democratising art and it got me even more excited.
And then by some strange coincidence, Frances sent me a notecard with her iconic ‘shell’ image on and the idea came to life.
The reason it took so long? I fell pregnant, firstly, then COVID hit and it felt like the wrong time to sell a product (to be completely honest, it still does, but I wanted to at least try!) and then we researched everything from an ethical standpoint. Did you know that there is no longer production and manufacture of matchboxes in the UK?
All of these elements made everything a bit longer to source but we decided we couldn’t bring out a product that we weren’t totally proud of. So here they are.
A box of beautiful made matches, supporting female artists, recyclable and ethically produced. I really hope you like them.
Hello, I love your shell matchboxes – they would be perfect for my cottage (Scallop Cottage) do you have any plans to restock in the pink colour soon? Thanks so much!
Hi! All the Frances Costelloe matches are limited edition, so once they’re gone they’re gone! These are the last batch of green we have available x