Matches

Matches are used, as everyone knows, to make fire. It is a very old invention - they were used in China as early as in the 6th century. The fire sticks consisted of a sulfur head set on the small pine piece of wood. They arrived to Europe quite late - in the 19th century. The etiquettes on the matchboxes appeared as early as in the half of the 19th century. Soon after that people started collecting them and that’s how phillumeny was born.