Ron Norris (1939 – 2020) was one of the pre-eminent collectors of his generation. His father was a keen collector, and Ron inherited his enthusiasm and built up a large, well-research collection over the years. Ron was also a frequent contributor to matchbox magazines, willingly sharing his knowledge and passion with other people. Ron also published books about the hobby, including “Lights”.
In this exhibition we are proud to publish posthumously and for the first time Ron’s research about the Belgian and Finnish Match Industries.
Roger is a lifelong collector of matchboxes. His career as musician, journalist and public relations consultant has involved extensive international travel – and enabled him to keep adding to his collection and make research visits to remote match factories.
Fascinated by the diversity of graphic design found on matchbox labels, and by the use of the matchbox as a communications mechanism, he used his personal collection as a treasure trove of knowledge from which to draw on as the basis for his 2001 book “The Book of Matchbox Labels”.
Roger is a member of the British Matchbox Label and Bookmatch Society and a regular contributor to its journal Match Label News.
My parents read an article on matchbox collecting in the Daily Mail newspaper and as a result my society membership started in 1977. This was a few years after deciding to collect matchboxes, rather than big black beetles, whilst on a family holiday in Bulgaria.
Finding a new label, skillet or piece of information still gives me a thrill. My collecting interests are wide but I am particularly interested in S.J. Moreland & Sons Ltd of Gloucester, UK imports before WWII and issues from smaller countries.
I am a member of the society committee where I enjoy working with the other committee members on various projects and issues. Also, I have been the society auctioneer since the last century.
The hobby has been an important part of my life and the Society has an important role to play to ensure it is there for future generations.
I collect many things but matchbox labels and related items hold my strongest interest. Having been involved in the hobby for more than fifty years I find myself particularly interested in the weird and wonderful and in this respect phillumeny doesn’t disappoint, I still find things that I would never even have imagined could exist.
T B Industries type holder (140 x 50 x 50 mm)
Over the years I’ve amassed collections from an eclectic range of subjects including postage stamps, revenue stamps, fiscal documents, embossed crests and monograms, post cards, cigarette cards, beer mats, dice, coins, bank notes, bullets, Magazine of Art Annuals, Majolica green leaf plates, Portmeirion Totem ware, Irish wade ceramics, Holkham Pottery mugs, custard cups, bottles, fossils, rocks and crystals, shells, exotic seed heads, taxidermy, carved ebony elephants, Japanese lacquer ware, plus many sundry items that draw my attention but are insufficient in number to be described as collections.
Bryant & May matchbox dispensers (530 x 65 x 60 mm and 530 x 95 x 60 mm)Some curious striking tubes (58 x 38 x 25 mm)A match striker (150 x 80 x 110 mm)
Top of the list as my main and most extensive collectable interest is matchbox labels and other match related items especially the obscure and unusual.
One day when I visited a small antique shop to possibly find some coins for my newly started coin collection I instead found lots of colourful labels with animals, cars, flowers and more that turned out to be matchbox labels, the first labels I had seen up to that point. As a young student, my wallet was thin so I only bought a few that time but as soon as I had some money left over I visited the shop and in the end all the labels were mine.
For several years, the labels were left lying around (approximately 200, which I thought was an incredibly large collection) until by chance I came into contact with a collector in my own hometown Trollhättan. He showed me his collection and told me how big the Swedish match industry had been, and on that day I became a Phillumenist. In Croydon a few years later, I got to meet several collectors with whom I am today good friends, and I had the opportunity to buy labels that I had only seen in Arne Tejder’s catalogue.
1840 wooden matchbox from Malmö, 66 × 41 × 19mm
The oldest box in my collection was made in Malmö around 1840.
In Sweden there is no pure match association but only the Nordstjärnan where you can collect everything, for me it felt a bit wrong, so in order for new and old Phillumenists around the world to be able to show off, ask questions, give answers or just see nice objects, I created a group on Facebook which I called Svenska Phillumenister and today it not only has an incredible amount of knowledge through its members but has also expanded to collectors of all of Scandinavia.
You can see lots of photos of my collection on my Instagram page @phillumeny.made.in.sweden
I am fortunate in that I cannot remember not being a collector of matchboxes and their labels. The fascination was probably started by having a pipe smoking father who consumed more matches than tobacco. I do remember being very regularly scolded by my mother for picking up used boxes in the street. For many years the collection was modest and it was when I was in my 20’s I discovered the British Matchbox Label and Booklet Society, met other collectors, realised the breadth of the hobby and learned to avoid the two classic tools of many uninformed collectors – scissors and the glue pot.
My particular interests have changed and developed over the 50 plus years of collecting with the prime focus now on boxes and labels from Norway and Sweden. Along the collecting route many smaller topics such as labels imported into the UK marked Foreign Made, Bryant and May promotional skillet boxes with average contents 23 and 26, match related ephemera, books about the hobby and match making along with many other aspects of the hobby have particularly taken my attention.
I have gained great value from meeting with other collectors and learnt through sharing knowledge and seeing what and how others collect and present their collections.
Since meeting the legendary collector and founder of the Cornish Match Company in 1971, David van der Plank, I have had a deep interest in Spanish Matchboxes and the history of the Spanish Match industry which began in 1836.
Gremio box, ca. 1895
My collection contains Spanish examples from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, and although the majority of these are labels I do have a good number of beautiful complete boxes.
Like most collectors I also have many examples from other countries, and prefer complete boxes wherever possible. I also always enjoy exchanging information with other collectors and learning new things about our wonderful hobby of phillumeny.
Publications and Web sites
I write articles for the Match Label News, which is the journal of the British Matchbox Label and Bookmatch Society, and have also developed two web sites which focus on specific aspects of my collection :
Old Cornish Mines gross packet label, a few Spanish Inserts
The Old Cornish Mine web site describes the history of the series which first got me interested in collecting, and shows illustrations of all the labels known to have been issued www.old-cornish-mines.co.uk
Spanish Matchbox Inserts (Fototipias) web site is dedicated to the history and beauty of the Insert cards which were issued in Spanish matchboxes between 1897 and 1910 www.inserts.org.uk
I started collecting matchboxes like many others of my generation. I certainly had some by the time I started my first school, despite the attempts of my mother to dissuade me from picking them up from the ground. But that was what you could do in those times! I could obtain some six to a dozen specimens (some admittedly in very poor condition) within a ten minute walk to the shops or school.
Over the years my interest in collecting matchbox labels has come and gone, but I seriously began collecting after school.
Despite attempting to “control” the sheer volume of my collection, it continued to grow, as did my interest in the stories behind the labels, the factories that made the matches, and researching the match industry throughout the world.
I was fortunate to meet with a fellow collector, Richard Tolson, and together we formed TM Labels, a joint collection.
I’d like to introduce myself; my name is John Wilson. I’m 58 years of age. I took an interest in matchboxes from the age of 9 when friends of mine were swapping matchboxes in the school playground.
Growing up through the years, I used to buy matchboxes from all the tobacconists to enhance my collection which grew and grew.
Some years later, I found on the internet there was a matchbox club, now known as the British Matchbox Label and Bookmatch Society which I joined in April 2008.
My collection now has nearly 67,000 complete matchboxes, all different ranging from around the mid 1800s to present date from all over the world.
I have residency in Lisbon, Portugal but I am currently living in Växjo, Sweden.
I was born in 1955 and started collecting matchbox labels and matchbooks when I was about 4 years old. Knowing about my interest in the hobby some of the phillumenists in the city of Porto encouraged me with some interesting offers. The publication in 1962 of the first catalogue of matchbox labels in Portugal allowed me to properly organize my collection. The 2nd edition of the catalogue published in 1965 and the monthly edition of the magazine “Filumenismo” gave a great boost to my development as a phillumenist.
I went on to specialise in all the material related to Portugal or that circulated in the Portuguese market and its colonies, namely Macau. My collection of Italian matchboxes/panels that circulated in Portugal in the 19th Century is very significant and formed the basis of my On-line Exhibit in 2021.
I am a founding partner of the APF – “Associação Portuguesa de Filumenismo” (founded in 1972), and currently its President.
2023 publication, Postcards in Phillumeny
I have published the following phillumenistic works, which can be purchased from APF :
Catalogue of Portuguese Matchbox Labels – Edition 1992 (co-author, text in Portuguese):
Catalogue of Matchbox Labels – Companhia Portugueza de Phosphoros – Series – 1895-1926 – 1st edition 2003; 2nd edition 2008; 3rd edition 2020; addendum 2025
Catalogue of Matchbox Labels – Portugal – XIX century – 1st edition 2011; 2nd edition 2014; 3rd edition 2022
Catalogue of Italian Matchboxes imported by Portugal – XIX century – 1st edition 2013; 2nd edition 2025
Catalogue of Matchboxes of Portuguese factories manufacture and Italian matchboxes imported by Portugal – XIX century – 2025
Addendum to the Catalogue of Matchbox Labels – Macau – 2016 edition (co-author, text in Portuguese)
Advertising Skillets and Bookmatches List – Macau – 2016 (co-author, text in Portuguese)
Phillumeny records – Portuguese Phillumeny Exhibitions – 2022
Phillumeny records – Portuguese Phillumeny Catalogues and publications – 2022
Phillumeny records – Matchbox labels produced abroad to Portuguese speaking territories – 2023
Phillumeny records – Postcard in Phillumeny – 1st edition 2023; 2nd edition 2025
Portuguese Matchbook Holders records – 2023
Matchbox Holders (grips – slides – match safes) records – Portugal – 2023
Global Addendum – Labels, skillets, matchbooks and their respective packet labels/packing papers – Addendum to different Portuguese catalogues – 2023 (co-author)
Phillumeny records – Printed matter – Advertising – Press articles – Portugal – 2025 (co-author)
Catalogue of Macau Matchbox Labels – 2026 (co-author)
