Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Collection of Palmer-Smith Matchbox Holders





One reader, a long time collector, has shared the part of his matchbox collection that includes those made by Palmer-Smith.  I believe his entire matchbox collection numbers over 125 and he is still in the market for more. If you have any for sale please respond in the comment section.
In the group below,there are kitchen match size covers, coffee table size covers and  pocket size.



    
fish






rifle





elephant

circles
sailfish
thumbnail
flowers
ivy
boot


lily

flowers
bowling
thumbnail

wheat









rope
flower
wreath
star







horse head


daisy swirl















    Thanks to Charlie for sending those great photos of a few of his matchbox covers, and also, to all those in the past who have sent information and/or pictures. Many of those will continue to be posted here.
    It would have been so much better to have grouped these in their proper categories of kitchen, coffee table or pocket size. Naturally, there are pattern repeats in the various styles so all of the pictures that were sent were not reproduced here. These shown here have dashed around all over the page and it will be interesting to see where they settle in when I click the publish button Hoping to solve some of the things that are causing the most problems in publishing the Aluminist, I have signed on to a 4-week Blog Triage with daily assignments. This is a jump into the unknown, but you may be able to follow along as I do my homework.
    Today the assignment is about the type of readers I would like to visit the Aluminist  and give some thought to their location and even their ages. I think we learned many years ago that we are located "all over"...but did you know that there are readers to this blog from many countries other than the U.S? Being so scattered has always presented a problem in having shows or meetings. Sharing through the Aluminist has been our answer. We also come in all ages although those of us who met through attendance at the shows are now some twenty years older. How can it be!
    In creating the blog, Aluminist, as a substitute for the older version of the bimonthly newsletter of past years, I have been attempting to cope with several problems in this new media.  Although the present readers are mainly collectors of many years experience, there are also new collectors to the field. 
    This collecting field welcoms the interest of these new collectors, for not only is it a pleasure to meet others with our collecting interest but it could be beneficial in other ways. Many of our long-time collectors have collected since the 1960s and after fifty years their changing life styles are forcing them to downsize or dispose of their collections and would welcome an opportunity to place place a few of their beloved pieces with a new group of collectors. In addition, collectors who are new to this arena, will often often find more unique pieces for sale by some of our long-time collectors. Attracting the attention of a new collector or one who might become interested is a problem I have not yet seriously considered.
       My readers of the old paper version appear to be pleased with the blog although they very seldom take advantage of the comment section.   The problem is that so many of us are computer challenged and many of my older collectors cannot do this.  In addition to this handicap, the wording of some of the “gadgets” on Blogspot seems to confuse many, although I have given limited instructions.
     The Aluminist blog is filled with photos and brief historical information. However hard I work at getting an attractive layout of the pictures accompanied with appropriate remarks, when the material is published, it is often scattered in an unattractive and senseless manner. This does not appear to bother the readers but it does disturb me. That is another area that is a work in progress.
    My challenges appear to be: attracting attention of collectors scattered across the nation, and getting active participation from viewers, plus controlling the appearance of my blog.


Dannie