Matchbox Label

マッチラベル / 1880s–1970s / Style / Printed Ephemera

The world's smallest advertising print: trademark, image and lettering compressed into a few square centimeters. Japan and Czechoslovakia competed as the great exporters, and phillumenist collecting preserved disposable design as a style.

Compression into centimeters / Strong trademark imagery / Exotic export iconography / Stock frames and grounds

フランスのマッチラベル収集(CC BY-SA 4.0)

Dictionary entry

Best used for
Comparing primary sources and canonical works · Extracting principles that transfer to other media
Type
Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
Composition
Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
Material
Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process
Caution
Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.
Further study
Meiji export labels / the Czech Solo works / phillumeny collecting culture

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