MATCHBOOK COVER CHAMPION SPARK PLUGS DIAMOND MATCH

Description

MATCHBOOK COVER CHAMPION SPARK PLUGS
FOR BETTER ENGINE PERFORMANCE DIAMOND MATCH
This Listing is for a Vintage Matchbook Cover that Features Advertising for Champion Spark Plugs. Ad Reads "Use Champion Spark Plugs for Better Engine Performance". Made in U.S.A. by The Diamond Match Co N.Y.C.
A LITTLE HISTORY :
A "matchcover", or "matchbook cover", is a thin cardboard covering that folds over match sticks in a "book" or "pack" of matches. Covers have been used as a form of advertising since 1894, two years after they were patented, and since then, have attracted people who enjoy the hobby of collecting. Many historians point to the Mendelson Opera as the first to use matchbooks for advertising purposes; they hand wrote their promotional information on blank matchbook covers made by the Binghamton Match Company between 1893/94.
Inspired by the Opera's innovation, Diamond Match salesman Henry Traute began approaching manufacturers to advertise their products on his company's matches, promoting them as something that would be viewed by their users many times a day. Among the first companies to order advertising matchbooks were Pabst beer, American Tobacco Company and Wrigley's Chewing Gum.
He also encouraged his customers to give away matchbooks as a promotional item. Collectors are known as phillumenists, or "lovers of light", and include people who have a shoe box or fish bowl filled with packs from local stores and restaurants, to serious collectors with covers organized in hundreds of different topics.
In 2005, there were over 1800 active collectors in The Rathkamp Matchcover Society (The Voice of the Hobby Since 1941), spread over 20 countries worldwide. On March 7, 2015 the highest price realized for a single matchbook was achieved. In a private sale, a rare Lion Match Co. Safety First matchbook dated June 14, 1927 celebrating Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic sold for ,000 USD. It is estimated 200 of these books were handed out at a dinner in his honor at the Astor Hotel in New York. At last count there were about twelve known to exist.
SCANS ARE OF THE ACTUAL MATCH COVER AND ARE PART OF THE DESCRIPTION.
FIRST CLASS SHIPPING WILL BE .04
ADDITIONAL COVERS PURCHASED WILL BE INCLUDED FOR NO EXTRA COST.  (But You Must wait for Me to Issue a updated invoice)
THANKS FOR LOOKING!