Restaurant Matchbooks Remain a Nostalgic Collectible

With smoking on the decline and bans in public spaces, matchbooks serve as souvenirs and places to advertise more than a source of fire. Still, along with coasters, cocktail napkins, and swizzle sticks, they endure as a cool keepsake.

“Matches have made a big comeback post-COVID as people seek tangible, non-digital mementos in an increasingly virtual world,” says Nadia Tisone Cavallo, who, along with her daughter, Alice, founded the online printing operation, Oh, What a Match! “With more people dining out and reconnecting socially, matchbooks have returned as nostalgic, vintage keepsakes that evoke memories of simpler times.”

The first commercial matchbook in the U.S. dates back to the late 1890s, when a traveling opera company hand-decorated blank matchbook covers with images and slogans promoting an upcoming show. The matchbook manufacturer, Diamond Match, capitalized on the idea, and before long, the baby-sized books were used to promote businesses across the country.

Matchbook manufacturing peaked in the 1940s and ’50s, then declined due to the availability of disposable lighters (not to mention the Surgeon General’s warning that cigarette smoking was linked to cancer), though the cannabis industry has helped boost recent sales, according to Brooks Gunderson, VP of operations at D.D. Bean & Sons Co., a New Hampshire-based match manufacturer founded in 1938 that makes some half million matchbooks a day.

“They are a very inexpensive investment,” notes Gunderson, “and they are biodegradable, which appeals to young people.”

“Our sales seem to be increasing every day,” says Regina Clark, national sales manager and head of customer support at D.D. Bean. “When the smoking industry changed, we thought it would diminish our work—as it turned out, smokers don’t ever use matches, they use lighters. We learned quickly that matchbooks and match boxes are the cheapest form of advertising you’re ever going to have.”

The hobby of collecting them—known as phillumeny—is still going strong, too.

“What sparked our passion was the charm and nostalgia of the matchbooks,” says Oh, What a Match’s Alice Cavallo, who counts more than 1,000 matchbooks in their collection, which dates to 1980s New York. “[They] are tiny works of art, each with their own story to tell.”

“People are collecting them again and using them as a pinpoint on their world map,” adds Clark. “And just like bell bottoms, everything that goes around comes around.”