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Matchcover or Matchbook Cover, is a thin cardboard jacket that folds over match sticks to form a book or pack of matches.
Matchcovers have been used as a form of advertising since the late 1800s and since then, have attracted people who enjoy the hobby of collecting. Collectors include people who have a fish bowl or shoe box filled with packs from local restaurants, night clubs and hotels to serious collectors with covers organized in hundreds of different topics. Serious matchcover collectors are called Phillumenist.
With matches made for his personal use, Joshua Pusey, a Philadelphia lawyer and patent attorney, is credited with the first matchbook in 1889. Pusey sold his patent to the Diamond Match Co. for $4,000 in 1896. The earliest known commercial advertising on matchbooks was about 1900. In the late 1920s, tens of thousands of advertisers used matchbooks and they are were the most popular advertising format in America.
Despite the commercial decline of matchbook sales, matchcover collecting is still alive and well in America.
The Diamond Match Company was established in 1881 and Barberton, Ohio became the site of the first Diamond matchbook factory.
In the late 1870's, strong competition had arisen in the match industry. In the interest of continued success for all the match companies the two biggest match producers in the country Swift, Courtney and Beecher, of Wilmington, Delaware and the Barber Match Company, of Akron, Ohio decided to consolidated and form the Diamond Match Co.
Diamond took over 85% of the match market, virtually controlling the entire industry. Diamond had plants all over the country. Matches were made in Springfield, Massachusetts, Oswego, New York, Barberton, Ohio, and Chico, California.
By the late 1800s the production figures exceeded 150,000 matchbooks a day. Diamond's objective was to produce a quality matchbook for sale to the public. The first Diamond matchbooks assembled were a dangerous and flimsy novelty.
The Diamond Match Company was established in 1881 and Barberton, Ohio became the site of the first Diamond matchbook factory.
