Matchboxes have been tucked away into the pockets of smokers since the early 19th century. Thanks to the flame emitted when the phosphorous head of the match is struck against a rough surface, smokers the world over have been able to light their cigarettes and cigars. Since then, millions of matchboxes have been produced in practically every country of the world, and for this precise reason it is no surprise they have become collector's items with a large following across five continents.

Selection criteria
As with the vast majority of collector's items, the selection criteria depends to a great degree in the tastes and preferences of each collector. One of the most popular criteria among matchbox collectors is to order them in terms of advertising themes. In this way, the matchboxes can be ordered into categories of advertising: bars, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs and companies. The popularity of matchboxes as a means of selling products and brands is thus clearly demonstrated.

There are several other collectable themes that have nothing to do with advertising, including inventions, art, monuments, boats, bullfighters, animals, flowers, footballers, telephones, religious icons or historic events. In this respect, the educational aspect of matchboxes can be seen, as shown by those matchboxes that explain a certain invention or historical event. Other popular criteria are the country of origin of each matchbox and the era it belongs to.�

An important Spanish collector
One of the best and most complete matchbox collections in the world can be found in Spain. Its creator is the Zaragoza-based Luis Tarazona who has managed to collect over a million matchboxes from dozens of different countries and era over a period of 50 years. He has set aside two rooms of his home to house all the boxes, the pick of which is the first matchbox that appeared in Spain in 1838, as well as the first one used as advertising, in this case for aniseed liquor.

While working for much of his whole life in the Spanish Phosphorous company's warehouse in Zaragoza, where he compiled a large part of his collection, Luis Tarazona wrote to politicians and royal houses the world over requesting the matchboxes designed for their personal use. In this way, he was sent boxes belonging to Hassan II, Fujimori or Bill Clinton. However, the true pick of his collection are the exclusive designs drawn for him by artists such as Dal�, Chillida or Forges, among others.