Matchbox Covers

For todays Show and Tell I have brought Matchbox Covers, and they are neat little things to find.

These small metal sleeves to place a matchbox in were popular tourist trinkets and often they were decorated with vikingships, iconic landmarks, coat of arms etc.

A few times I have been extra lucky and dug up trench-art examples were the soldier had made the cover from scratch and personalized it with his own artwork.

So here are nine of the covers I have found, plus three where only the plate with the deco have survived.

1:

A very popular design was the vikinship.

2:

Embossed with a vikingship and Norge.

3:

This matchbox cover is embossed with a bear in a landscape. Im not sure if it is a polar bear or a regular one, and it has Norge punched in below the bear.

4:

This one is very worn so it was difficult to get a good photo of it, but you can make out in the left lower corner a viking inspired pattern.

5:

A trench-art example of a matchbox cover.on the front a reindeer and the backside says 1944.

1944 is carved on the backside together with a pattern along the edges.

A trench-art example of a matchbox cover. On the front a reindeer and 1944 is carved on the backside together with a pattern along the edges.

6:

Another thrench-art example. On the front is carved a Luftwaffe eagle and 1944 Norwegen 4 Augusta

The backside is engraved with a heart and anchor and inside the heart is a boat.

Another thrench-art example. On the front is carved a Luftwaffe eagle and 1944 Norwegen 4 Augusta. The backside is engraved with a heart and anchor and inside the heart is a boat.

7:

Nordkapp, Norge, with a vikingship in the center.

8:

This matchbox cover has a depiction of what appears to be the profile of a german soldier wearing a helmet.

9:

The front of this trench-art cover is engraved with a ship

there is a pattern on the narrow side

and the backside has hills with trees, a boat on the water and sun in the sky, and 1944.

The front of this trench-art cover is engraved with a ship, there is a pattern on the narrow side and the backside has hills with trees, a boat on the water, sun in the sky, and 1944.

10:

This one is very deteriorated but shows a stavechurch

The second coverfront has the coat of arms of the town Aalesund

The last matchbox cover front is decorated with the famous scene of the Norwegian Constituent Assemb

The first of the three matchbox cover frontplates is very deteriorated, but one can see it is a stavechurch. Number two has the Coat of Arms of the city Aalesund, and the last one is decorated with the famous scene of the Norwegian Constituent Assembly in 1814.