- [Articles and items posted from the last 12 months]
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- Collecting Matchbooks Strikes
Her Interest
- Florence Recorder, June 25, 2009:
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- Boston Covers On Display
- June, 2009:
A digital version of the Boston Public Library's Boston
matchcover collection is now online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157618736193797/
It's a great collection with just over 200 items from various
conventions and Boston landmarks--and it's permanent!
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- June-September, 2009: Mark Quilling, MN, has an exhibit on display
at the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog, in St. Louis.
The exhibit, called “Vintage Matchbook Collectibles”,
runs through September in the museum’s special exhibit gallery.
Mark was also asked to write an article for the museum’s
quarterly newsletter, Sirius. A 5-page article was produced,
portions of which should be posted by now on the museum’s
website (www.museumofthedog.org).
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- This is the first exhibit of its kind for the Museum of the
Dog, as they presently don’t have any matchbooks, matchcovers,
or match-related items in their permanent collection. Mark will
generously be donating his duplicate dog-related matches to the
museum, and the museum has decided to install a special display
case to permanently display them.
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- Mark’s also having matchbooks printed to promote the
exhibit, and he’d be happy to send members a cover or two
if they will send me a SASE. The front panel of the cover is
shown here. (Mark Quilling, 1000 Edgerton St., #1313, Saint Paul,
MN 55130-3958)
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- Boston Covers
On Display
- A digital version of the Boston Public Library's
Boston matchcover collection is now online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157618736193797/
It's a great collection with just over 200 items from various
conventions and Boston landmarks.
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- Sentiment, not money, fuels matchbook
collectors
- Saturday, December 6, 2008— Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review
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- When their daughter visits Carry and Nora van Tol's home
for birthday parties, she knows to bring a lighter for the candles
on the cake. It's not that Christine van Tol's parents have no
matches to ignite the candlelight: The elder van Tols have collected
more than 1 million matchbooks, also known as matchcovers.
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- Some matchcovers have the matches removed; others contain
wooden or cardboard matches. Often, Carry and Nora can't remember
which matches they have that are worth keeping and which aren't.
Hence, Christine van Tol totes the lighter. The Elizabeth Township
couple owns so many matchcovers, they added on to their split-entry
home to give themselves a 24-by-22-foot room where they ply their
passion, with an extra garage beneath.
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- Shelves the van Tols bought from a Glassport drugstore going
out of business line an entire length of the collection room.
Albums full of matchbooks pack the shelves, with each matchbook's
matches removed. The van Tols remove the matches for two reasons.
One is safety, but the other is space. Carry van Tol says keeping
the matches would require about three times the space to store
them.
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- On the opposite side of the room, cabinets with glass doors
display special collectibles, including matchcovers highlighting
Broadway shows, various Olympics games and major league sports
teams including the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins.
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- Under the front windows that allow bright sunlight to stream
through, Carry built in light oak drawer cabinets that store
more matchcovers.
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- And in the center of the room, large folding tables provide
an expansive central work space where Carry and Nora work on
their collection. There, the two sort through matchcovers, remove
the matches, if necessary, categorize the covers and place them
in collectors' books. Nora also makes her own plastic storage
sleeves for the books with a machine similar to a plastic food
sealer. Carry intends to build an oak table sometime soon to
replace the folding tables.
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- You might think, with all that energy, the two pursue their
hobby with the fire, so to speak, of avid investors. But no one
has gotten rich collecting matchcovers, says Mike Prero of Auburn,
Calif., editor of the RMS Bulletin, newsletter of the Rathcamp
Matchcover Society. The society is the largest and oldest such
hobby organization in the world.
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- "This is more of a sentimental thing," says Nora,
62. And the sentiment began with Carry. "I started as a
little kid," says Carry, 64, a native of the Netherlands.
"My dad worked for the airline (KLM, the Dutch national
airline) and whenever he went places, he picked up matches."
Carry spent lots of time on his collection even after emigrating
to the United States and marrying Nora. She decided to help as
a way to spend more time with her husband. It didn't take long
before she was hooked, too. Part of the reason is that matchbooks
are more than their facades.
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- "The history of the United States, for the last 100-plus
years, is chronicled in matchcovers -- fashions, prices, goods
and services, transportation, holidays and customs, wars, political
campaigns," Prero says. "It's all there, in matchcovers."
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- The van Tols open just about any of their collector books,
and a treasure trove of Americana pours out: bygone logos, styles
and expressions and past historical events. Carry has parts of
world history in matchcovers, too. Among his matchcovers from
about 100 countries around the world are four boxes of matchcovers
that were manufactured in 1939 and urge the user to "join
the SS" of Hitler's Germany.
- He also has matchcovers U.S. troops flung out of airplanes
in the Middle East, with Osama bin Laden's photograph and offers
of rewards, printed in Arabic.
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- The first U.S. patent for matchcovers was registered in 1847.
The van Tols' oldest specimen is an English matchcover from the
1870s, which they have framed. But the van Tols find that matchcovers
are becoming more difficult to collect. With more people giving
up smoking due to health concerns, and fewer public places allowing
it, fewer businesses give out matches as a courtesy. The rise
of disposable lighters and increased labor costs for manufacturing
matchbooks also have cut into the industry.
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- Prero says matchcover collecting had its origins in matchbox-label
collecting, which goes back to the late 1800s. By the early 1930s,
there were matchcover collectors and collecting clubs in the
United States that catered to matchcover collectors, although
there were not yet specific matchcover clubs.
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- In 1940, a group of Eastern matchcover collectors formed
the Rathkamp Matchcover Society, which today has 634 members,
including the van Tols. Prero estimates there are around 1,500
serious collectors but "probably millions" who accumulate
matchbooks. It's easy to get started, Prero says: "Go to
any swapfest or convention, and there are even tables heaped
with covers ... free for the taking. Name another hobby that
offers that."
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- Over the years, the van Tols developed some quirky collecting
categories. For instance, one category Carry collects includes
matchcovers highlighting businesses with very low telephone numbers.
ALthough locals today dial 10 numbers to telephone even the neighbor
next door, the matchcover of the Bank of Elk River, Minn., urges
prospective customers to "Phone 1" and the Georgian
Restaurant of Brighton, Ont., Canada, which similarly commands,
"Phone 110."
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- Carry also is particular to matchcovers commemorating bus
lines, including companies in his native country. He recently
won a trophy at a matchcover convention for his display of bus
matchcovers. The trophy is one of many the van Tols have won
at similar conventions.
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- A Crafton native, Nora collects matchbooks that highlight
Crafton businesses, which she says are "hard to come by."
She particularly likes one that states, "I'm a Crafton girl."
She also collects covers with her first name, including wedding
matches of several couples with brides named Nora, and has a
complete set of matchcovers with various women's names, manufactured
by the Royal Stationery Co. of Minneapolis.
- Other favorite categories are amusement park matchcovers,
including those of Kennywood, and defunct West View Park and
Conneaut Lake Park.
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- "I told (Carry), in 10 years, we have to downsize,"
Nora says. But she worries that with fewer collectors, it might
be difficult to sell part of the collection.
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- Daughter Christine, of Springdale, says she has photos of
her parents with their massive collection of matchcovers. Laughing,
she says, "I call them my commitment photos."
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- For more information on collecting matchbooks and matchcovers,
log onto the official site of the Rathkamp Matchcover Society.
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October?, 2008--Csino Chip and Token News
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Match Display in Fullerton
August 26—September 13, 2008
“Got a Light?”, a colorful display of over 150 Americana-style
matchcovers from the mid-century, was featured at the Main Art
Gallery of the Visual Arts Center at California State University
in Fullerton. It was part of a special exhibition on matchcover
art running from August 26 to September 13, 2008. A joint project
of San Diego MC’s Doug Fouquet and the Visual Arts Center,
the idea was initially suggested by Joe DeGennaro of RMS, who
was first approached by the university. The display was designed
by grad students Elizabeth Little and Elizabeth Tallman. Some
of the matchcover subjects include World War Two Patriotics,
Military services, Tourist attractions, National Parks, Movie
studios, and Famous hotels and restaurants. |
 Back to RMS Home Page
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