You can buy matchbook wallpaper from Chasing Paper to copy the look without the effort.
"I used to pick matchbooks up on the road, then bring them back and store them in a big brandy snifter."Īt Postino in Scottsdale, AZ, an entire wall is filled with matchbooks, stacked together like bricks. "People keep them in jars on their coffee tables," DeGenarro says. But as the trend shifts and people take matchbooks to be seen now-not sold later-the art of displaying the matchbooks has become just as important as the designs that are on them. They're easier to thumb through, to see what can be traded or sold or bought.
True hobbyists like DeGenarro-who previously served as president of the national Rathkamp Matchcover Society-remove all the matches, press the books flat, and store them in binders in plastic sleeves. “They’re looking to be different-to set themselves apart,” he explains. Nashville’s House of Cards (a dinner-and-a-magic show hot spot) commissioned Dannon and The Match Group to create its feature matches, too. He helped produce a design created by Garden & Gun Club in Atlanta, GA: a chic, evergreen cover that holds white matches printed with black and white sketches of birds.
They’re expensive to make, which is why vintage ones sell on eBay for nearly $200 a piece.ĭannon takes credit for reintroducing feature matches to the market. The latter is a vestige of the ‘40s, made famous by The Lion Match Company, and has art on the covers in addition to designs printed on every matchstick. “Restaurants are asking for those special colors, and I’m getting more requests for feature matches,” Dannon explains. The peonies (which symbolize bravery) and the crane (which symbolizes good fortune and longevity) are colorful and outlined in gold, both luxuries that were expected of vintage matchbooks but are rarer to see today.
MATCHBOOK PRINTS SERIES
The sixth of the series launches soon (it was designed by local artist Jordan Kay and brought to life by Wagner Match) and serves as a tribute to the original dining room staff-Japanese women who were coming to America for the first time. Every four to six months, the spot releases a new matchbook that tells a piece of Canlis’s history. A year and a half ago, Brian Canlis launched a matchbook program for his family’s 68-year-old Seattle fine-dining restaurant, Canlis. Four years later, he’s posted 201 matchbooks and garnered 46.2 thousand followers.īecause they don’t serve as practical a purpose any more-save for lighting candles-matchbooks have to look good. Photographer Charles Ryan Clark, or as he’s known on Instagram, posted his first photo on November 8, 2014: a picture of the neon pink and green matchbook from the legendary Manhattan joint The Spotted Pig. There are even entire accounts dedicated just to the art of matchbook design. The hashtag #phillumeny has 15,670 posts #phillumenist has 12,755. The official hobby of collecting matchbooks is called phillumeny, a combination of the Greek phil (loving) and Latin lumen (light), and it's alive and well on Instagram. The former is still true, but matchbooks now serve more as decoration-and people are obsessed with showing off their collections. In the mid-1900's, the purpose of being handed a matchbook with your dinner bill was two-fold: It was an advertising play and a tool for your post-meal cigarette. Some might have assumed that restaurant matchbooks burned out with smoking sections, but restaurants are still making them-and they're not going unnoticed. “I had to explain to him that it’s one of the longstanding traditions in restaurants and bars-and I informed him that no matter how hard you try, you can’t smoke a matchbook.” He won the battle.Īpparently you can’t smoke ‘em out, either. “When the city of Minneapolis banned smoking-and along with that, ash trays and matchbooks-in the ‘90s, I actually had to write a letter to the local councilman,” Kozlack laughs. There was one point in time when the restaurant’s kitschy match practice was in danger. Kozlack says, "I've seen just about everything: Brad and Susie and baby make three, the address of someone's new house, Will you marry me?" They start every morning, stamping the names under which people have made reservations or phrases to commemorate special occasions, up to two lines at a time. The role of manning the tiny machine-which is about the size of a waffle iron and has more than earned its place in Jax's coat room-is coveted only three women in history have stamped out the majority of these matches. "I bet we've gone through 50 different embossers," Kozlack says. The restaurant's been doing this for 60-plus-years.
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