Canberra collector Neil Abbott has spent more than five decades building a collection of more than a million pieces. And he’s not finished yet, he told reporter DHWANI PATHAK.

It started when Neil Abbott was 15, with an interest that had a little help from his mum.

More than five decades later, the 72-year-old Canberra collector has more than a million matchboxes, matchbooks and labels, a shed full of boxes waiting to be sorted and a habit of checking every tobacconist he passes.

The appeal was simple.

“These matchbooks, you know, each are different, and you know, I just like the designs and the things they were advertising and that sort of stuff.”

Abbott has never really stopped collecting.

He was working in the public service while the collection grew, but retirement gave him something he had not had before: time to deal with it.

“Before I retired, you could get the matches on eBay or something like that, or buy collections like that, and I used to get a lot of collections,” he says.

“But when I retired… at least I could start sorting my collection out, bits and pieces of it.”

That sorting job is still going.

“I’ve got a shed full of boxes of matches in there that I’m trying to sort through, and all the good ones that I like are inside.”

The collection spans Australia, the UK, the US and other countries, with much of it acquired through trades with fellow collectors.

When matchbooks were commonplace in restaurants, hotels, clubs and casinos, finding them was considerably easier.

“They were all free, of course. You help yourself. Casinos were the best place. We had lots of them at the casinos.”

He also had a simpler method.

“Everywhere you went, I was looking at the ground because you know people used to throw them away when they finished with them, and I used to pick them up in the ground.”

Abbott would visit businesses around Fyshwick where he knew he might find bowls of matches.

Then there were the sets, which gave collecting another dimension.

He particularly remembers Redheads Olympic matchboxes produced in the 1950s. He says there were roughly 40 in the set, although he is not certain of the exact number.

Redheads continued producing sets until the company was sold to a Swedish match company in the 1990s, Abbott says.

The Redheads material remains a favourite, but the fascination has grown beyond matchboxes. His collection now includes umbrellas, director chairs, T-shirts, hats and caps featuring the brand.

“Now I’m fascinated about the Redheads. That’s one big thing.”

Some pieces also carry personal memories.

Abbott and his wife, Betty, had personalised matchbooks made for their wedding in the 1970s, featuring their names and wedding date.

“That was quite something done in the ’70s,” he says.

Betty has contributed to the collection herself, including a World War II shell that a soldier in New Guinea turned into a match holder. 

The couple have learnt that collecting matches can require unusual travel equipment, too.

Abbott carries a staple remover so he can carefully open matchbooks without damaging them.

After recently returning from Italy, the couple had visited “every little tobacconist shop that we walked past” to see whether they had matches.

China provided an even more memorable haul. During a 2009 holiday, the couple visited Gulangyu, a small island near Xiamen, where Abbott stumbled across a shop called Match Paradise, packed with matchboxes.

“I thought I had found paradise!” he recalls. He bought as many as he could comfortably carry home, although he still wishes he had arrived with a couple of empty suitcases.

For Abbott, the attraction is not simply collecting. The designs capture changing times.

“The graphics really depict the era,” he says. “The ones from the ’60s are very different from the ’70s, early ’80s.”

Abbott’s local matchbook collectors have another milestone to mark this year: the 200th anniversary of Englishman John Walker striking what is considered the world’s first friction match. The club has been celebrating the anniversary alongside its usual swap meets and history hunts. 

He has also contributed pieces to displays and publications, including material connected to Canberra and the Academy of Science.

And sometimes the pleasure is simply rediscovering what he already has.

“I like sorting a lot of stuff out because there’s a lot of stuff there I forgot about.”

However, there’s one question the couple have not completely resolved: what happens to the collection when Abbott is no longer around to look after it?

“Betty might have a bonfire or something with the matches,” he says with a smile.

“I always threaten,” she adds.

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