Bryant and May Safety Match Box labels as found on Melbournes streets, 1965-71
These
Bryant and May Safety Match labels were collected at a time when
I had to walk a couple of miles each day to primary school in the
sixties and slightly beyond. In those days it was socially
acceptable to smoke, spit and litter when and where it was convienient.
So I picked up the lot of discarded match boxes along the way.
The boxes were soaked in water for about a day to release the glue. The
labels are extremely thin and fragile and are now "conserved" by PVA
glueing to heavy bond paper. Most of the labels were the generic
red headed lady, who looked suspiciously like a teacher that we feared
and loathed. The red head still looks slightly demonic to me ! About
one in ten boxes would have a collectors label.
I
have recently recieved some correspondance from a person who actually
worked at the Bryant and May factory in Melbourne which explained the
mystery one over three symbol means. The 1/3 one over three
symbol means that one third of the revenue recieved was excise levied
by the government. There was a sealed mechanical counter on an
assembly line where boxes of one gross (144) were packed and counted
just before despatch.