matchboxes

A wooden snuff box or match box, in the form of a book. On the front and back covers, there is a cross with 4 equal arms, with 4 smaller crosses in each quarter. The spine has light and dark wood inlays and writing, possibly in Ethiopian Hebrew. The front cover should be stuck in place, but has now broken off. Inside is a hidden section which makes up what would be the pages of the book. This would have pulled out to the right side, hinged on a peg in the top right hand corner. The peg has broken away and is no longer present. This inner piece has a small rectangular section, which looks around the right size for matches. There is also a rough rectangle of material attached to the outside, which looks like it would be used for striking matches.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk