1st Online International Matchbox & Labels Exhibition: Flemming Henningsen

I started collecting matchbox labels as a boy in the mid-1960s.It was some nice boxes, imported into my country – Denmark – from Finland that caught my interest. A contributing reason why I chose matchbox labels over e.g. stamps or coins was that it was a much cheaper hobby, but definitely just as interesting.

When I started collecting the matchboxes were wooden boxes with a label glued on it. At that time we only collected the label. From the end of the 1960s the match factories started to produce card boards instead of wooden boxes. The labels was now printed direct on the cardboard. Therefore, we started to open the boxes where they are glued together and opened them as skillets. Through the years my collection grew by family and friends giving me matchboxes they collected for me on holidays or otherwise.

I also became a member of clubs for phillumenists and got pen pals around the world. Today my collection has gradually grown to more than 160,000 different labels, skillets and boxes from 178 different countries, among them also former countries and areas with autonomy.

I have my own website. You are more that welcome to visit it: www.phillumeny.dk.

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