What is Phillumeny?

Phillumeny is the collecting of matchbox labels and matchbook covers. People collect matchbooks for all types of reasons. They may be a fan of a certain beverage and only collect matchbooks advertising that brand. Some people collect a specific category of matchbook like those advertising gasoline and oil, car dealerships, restaurants or hotels. I collect matchbooks based on location — primarily those from Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Most of the matchbooks in my collection range in date from 1920 to 1979. Before 1979, the “striker” (the little strip that you slide the match head across to ignite it) was located on the front of the book. In 1979, the federal government mandated the relocation of the striker to the back of the matchbook for safety reasons. This feature — along with the “manumark” (the manufacturers info, printed in small font below the striker) and details about the business advertised — can tell us the approximate age of the matchbook.

So, why would someone take the time to collect something that was meant to be thrown away once all the matches were used? For me, it’s all about the designs. I love the layouts and font types. Some designs are simple and some are incredibly detailed, especially for something so small. I love to imagine the matchbooks sitting on a counter in the businesses themselves, many of which are long gone and lost to the ages. In my opinion, matchbooks were a much more effective way of advertising than billboards or even business cards, particularly throughout the decades where smoking was widely accepted and permitted in most public places. Matchbooks are like markers in time, showing the location and contact information for places that exist only in memory.