Personalized Matchbooks and Matchboxes
General Information
Personalized matchbooks and matchboxes make great promotional tools for restaurants and bars. They also make notable souvenirs for guests at weddings and parties. Their convenient size allows them to be stored easily in purses and pockets. The potential uses for matches are almost innumerable. They can be used for lighting candles, outdoor grills, campfires, and cigarettes.
Matchbook Styles
Personalized matchbooks are available with 20, 30 or 40 stems. There are several different styles, colors and sizes available. Inside printing on books of matches is offered for an additional fee. Optional features, such as deluxe stock and a UV coating, are available on selected styles. A distributor ID (tagline) on the bottom fold is required.
Matchbox Styles
Personalized matchboxes can be printed with standard colors or custom printed. They come with 20-30 stems per box. An optional UV coating is available on selected styles.
A Few Facts About Matchbook Collecting
- Collecting books of matches has become so popular it has coined its own term, “phillumeny.”
- The oldest branch of the hobby, started in the late 1800s, included collecting labels off of matchboxes.
- The first organized match-cover clubs began appearing in the early 1930s.
- In 1941, Henry Rathkamp established the Rathkamp Cover Society, which still exists in North America today.
A Brief History of Matches
- The first companies to invest money in promotional matchbooks and matchboxes were Blue Ribbon Beer and Wrigley’s Chewing Gum.
- In 1827, John Walker marketed sulfur tipped splints referred to as “congreves,” better known as the “match.”
- In 1889, Joshua Pusey was credited with the creation of a book of matches.
- In 1895, the first advertising was printed on a book of matches by Mendelson Opera Company.
- In 1896, Pusey patented his own matches and books of matches with Diamond Match Company.
