On display here is a private collection of 43,000 matchboxes and another 16,000 matchbox covers compiled in dozens of books. It’s a vast and fascinating collection housed in an adorably charming courtyard at the Convento de San Francisco, adjacent to the old church of the same name.
Aquiles da Mota Lima, the collector who initiated the borderline compulsive display, was a simple trader from Tomar who travelled the world. In 1953, he developed an interest in matchbox designs. On his route to London by ship to witness Queen Elisabeth II’s coronation, he encountered an American woman who requested him to check if he could pick up a few commemorative matchboxes. She asked if he might gather additional matchboxes in other countries and send them to her during his travels.
Mota Lima kept a similar design for himself whenever he discovered an unusual matchbox. When he returned to Portugal, he had amassed a collection of more than 100 quite distinctive matchboxes. This led him to gather matchboxes from 127 countries, containing “at least two, three million matchsticks,” according to Ana Cristina Rosário, one of the museum’s welcoming and helpful hosts.
The collection’s earliest matchboxes originate from the late nineteenth century. The design subjects range from social history to kitsch; pin-ups from the 1890s to the mid-1980s; architecture, both old and new; uniforms of numerous armies; vehicles ranging from horse-drawn to Formula 1, movie stars, soccer players, animals, including racehorses and snakes, royalty portraits, erotica, windmills. classic ballet dancers. paintings by world-famous artists, and a variety of weaponry.
After Aquiles’s death, the collection was overseen by his daughter Maria Helena da Mota Lima. While she is frail, she can still be found on the premises at least once a week as of 2017. She is devoted to the collection and the museum, which proudly displays the matchbox portraying the young crowned Elisabeth II.
The display of matchboxes is organized by country of origin and occasionally by subject. The exhibitions overwhelm the viewer row after row in seven big rooms. A single visit is insufficient; repeated trips reveal discoveries each time. There is so much… matchboxes from the Soviet Union’s early Communist era, Olympic Games, book covers and film posters, brilliant authors, long-forgotten sports stars, tyrannical rulers and democratically elected officials, warlords and peaceniks.
While some designs are rudimentary, others are really well executed in typography and colour control. Some are crude reproductions of larger images, while others are meticulously drawn originals. And although some are historically significant, others are simply “for fun” or intended to be a result for small children. Even the print quality varies between brands, as well as between countries and time periods.
Address: Avenida General Bernardo Faria, Tomar, Portugal
