To celebrate Halloween, we have put together some of our favourite weird and wonderful Halloweenesque vintage matchbox labels.
The spooky theme compliments the often strange and whacky world of matchbox art
Halloween Animals
The bat is a common theme in vintage matchbox art. These two early 1900s Japanese labels, highlight the macabre element to matchbox art.
The Black cat safety matches were made in Poland
Because of the association of Werewolves and a full moon, wolves have long been associated with Halloween. In this vintage Indian label see the artist depicting the majestic wolf.
And of course, it’s not Halloween unless you have a healthy helping of spiders…
or rats...
Halloween Characters
The Magic Square Square matchbox, c.1910, is a beautiful design that shows each of the columns adding up to 60 – the average contents of each box.
Mephisto matches showcase beautiful but macabre artwork. The name Mephisto matches comes a demon of the same name. featured in German folklore.
And finally Lucifer. Lucifer matches were invented around the 1820s – they were the first ‘modern matches’. You could light them on any surface, and they were extremely dangerous and unpredictable, as the image below suggests!
