Not too long ago, I had the chance to look through a couple of fineoldmatchbook collections, and it got me to thinking about those handy little giveaway advertisem*nts thatwere ubiquitous in my youth.
Although I never gave it a second thought, as the wide public consumption of cigarettes, cigars and corn-cob pipes disappeared from America, the likelihood of finding a tray of matchbooks on a business’counter died too.
In my early years, however, they were everywhere.
Caption: This mint condition matchbook from the San Angelo Shakey's Pizza Parlor could fetch up to $3 on sites like Ebay.com.
Surelynobody ever paid for regular old matches back in the day, because you could pick some up anywhere, and the only kind you had to shell out money for were the big kitchen matches – like the Ohio Blue Tips my grandmother used to light her stove.
Caption:Several steakhouses occupied the building at 532 W. Beauregard Ave. in San Angelo, and several of the proprietors had the same matchbooks with a handy map on the inside cover.
Matchbooks were widely collected then, but most were curated in large fishbowls or oversize brandy snifters, and just about every house in the neighborhood had a few handfulls that more-or-less showed where they been in the last few years.
Caption:Many of the more upscale businesses in a city offered their patrons wooden matches.
Folks who are a little more serious about their matchbook collecting are known as phillumenists, and as it happens, some of the old matchbooks still lurking around could be worth some money.
A recent perusal of Ebay.com showed some surprising offerings.
One seller was asking $2,700 for a set of 50 mint-condition Boston Red Sox matchbooks with the 1965 season schedule on them, advertised as “VERY RARE.”
Somebody in Estonia was selling 10,000 “Vintage, rare, international” matchboxes, and hoping to get $19,999 for them.
Most of the items for sale are a little more down-to-Earth, with thousands of offerings priced from about $1.
Caption:This matchbook appeared after the US sent troops in force to Vietnam, and urged citizens to call their representatives about prisoners of war who had not been acknowledged by the communist forces.
While many of the matchbooks for sale online had their matches intact, many are for sale as “cover-only”, and if that old horde of matchbooks in the garage is making you nervous, they are pretty easy to disarm with a few tools. (Pro-tip: Don’t use your fingernail. You will get stabbed.
Former San Angelo Fire Marshall Ross Coleman said in an April interview that people bring in old matches to his office all the timebecause they are the only ones in town equipped to deal with things like that. They also take old fireworks.
Coleman said the old matchbooks are chemically very stable, and as long as they are kept in a cool, dry place, they will be fine. He said it’s better to store them in some kind of spark-proof container, and definitely make sure they are out of children’s reach.
Caption: The Dun-Bar West and Sam's Chicken House shared the same address, and Sam's was locally famous as the latest thing open in San Angelo in an era where most restaurants closed at 10 p.m.
Local offerings
A sampling of West Texas matchbooks collected between 1956 and 1996 is an interesting trip down memory lane.
The big matchbook givers of the day were the banks and restaurants, and probably 60 percent of all the specimens in both collections were of that variety.
Caption: Almost all restaurants kept matches on hand, and they are fun reminders of some favorite night spots from bygone eras.
Taco Bell, long famous for its affordability, offered patrons little tin-foil ashtrays and matchbooksfor their convenience, although they were the more affordable paper matches, as opposed to the finer wooden matches from more high-end establishments, like the local country clubor the most popular restaurant and club.
Restaurant-and-club is a concept that doesn’t ring a bell for many younger readers, but before the rules were changed in the mid-1980s, you had to be a member of the private club attached to the restaurant in order to have wine, beer or a co*cktail with your meal.
The best-of-the-best offered their patrons fine foil-finished extra-large paper matches and wooden matches in sturdy cardboard sleeves, sometimesin long lengths to accommodate pipe smokers.
Caption: Political campaigns regularly gave out matchbooks as a useful advertisem*nt that was likely to come in handy.
Caption: Trips to interesting places were often commemorated by taking a matchbook to add to a growing collection.
Caption: Paper matches were invented in the late 1800s, and their production peaked in the 1950s, as disposable butane lighters became widely available.
So the next time you find yourself with a little time on your hands, haul out that old cigar box full of matches and see if you have any rare specimens hiding in the cupboard.
