Phillumenism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phillumenism is the hobby of collecting matchboxes, matchbox labels, and matchbooks.
Phillumenism is an archaic form arising from its early use from the mid 1940s into the 1950s; the internationally accepted word is phillumeny. A person who engages in phillumeny is a phillumenist. These two forms have been adopted by may other languages, e.g., philuméniste, fillumenista, Filumenist and филуменист.
This hobby was widespread before the computer age. In the Eastern bloc countries it was very much alive with the collaboration of the local matchbox manufacturers.
The decline of phillumenism in the former Soviet Union was caused by the technology change in the production of matchboxes. Previously the boxes were made of wood with labels pasted onto them. This was replaced by cheaper cardboard boxes with pictures stamped directly onto the cardboard. This resulted in a significant deterioration of the quality of pictures and was accompanied with a decrease in diversity.
In Japan, Mr. Teichi Yoshizawa was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's top phillumenist. In Portugal, Mr. Jose Manuel Pereira published a series of albums to catalog and display matchbox collections called "Phillalbum".
