A Salesman’s Samples

Exhibitor : Flor Millán Herrera

Like many industries across the world, the Spanish Match Industry employed travelling salesmen who moved across the country touting their wares to businesses, shops and individuals. Each Salesman had a set of Samples which could be shown to prospective customers to entice them to place an order. These Samples are much rarer to find these days than the items which were being sold, because the Samples were produced in vastly fewer numbers and were probably thrown away when new product ranges came out. I feel very lucky to have so many Samples from the Spanish Match Industry in my collection.

Fosforera Española

1n 1956 the Spanish Government decided to place the match industry back into private ownership, and the auction was won by Grupo Fierro. Two new companies were formed : Fosforera Española (FESA) and Fosforera Canariense.

These FESA Samples show the different coloured match heads which were available in the “Labor 4” size boxes made in the late 1950s. The wooden case has a manually-operated mechanism which opens up all the cardboard matchboxes to reveal the matches.

Wood sample box from Fosforera Española, 1958-1965, 37 x 10 x 3 cm

Samples from Fosforera Española, 1958-1965, 37 x 10 x 3 cm

Fosforera Marroqui

The Fosforera Marroqui factory was located in Tetuán which is a Spanish territory in Morocco.

The Samples show the boxes made at the Tetuán factory between 1955 and 1965.

Wood sample box from Fosforera Marroqui, 18 x 10 x 3 cm

Samples from Fosforera Marroqui, 18 x 10 x 3 cm

Allumaroc

The Allumaroc company wanted to explore the market for matches in Dakar, and used the factory in Casablanca (in French-controlled Morocco) as a base to do this.

The Samples show wooden matchboxes from Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Finland and Belgium which would have been imported into the country for sale.

Samples folder from Allumaroc, 1955-1965, 32 x 22 x 3 cm

Boxes for sale in Dakar, 1955-1965, 32 x 61 x 3 cm

Fósforos del Caribe

Fósforos del Caribe was owned by the Fosforera Española group, and the factory was in Havana.

The Samples show matchboxes which were manufactured in Cuba between 1955 and 1965.

Samples folder from Fósforos del Caribe, Cuba, 1955-1965, 24 x 15 x 3 cm

Sample from Fósforos del Caribe, Cuba, 1955-1965, 24 x 15 x 3 cm

Miscellaneous

The Samples below are from 1980-2010 and show bookmatches, plastic matchboxes, die cuts items and boxes of many different sizes from both Fosforera Española and Swedish Match (who bought FESA in 1992).