To Light A Fire: Spill Vases And Match Holders

From Our Files

May 18, 2017

Man may have mastered fire millennia ago, but until fairly recently, historically speaking, fire and fire-tending have involved a great deal of equipment and attention. As with many things, we tend to take for granted providing light and heat, illuminating a page, heating up a meal, and achieving an accurate temperature to bake bread, but getting a fire started wasn’t always so easy.
Especially after oil lamps and gas lights started to become more common in homes, offering a steady source of a small flame, household mantels began to be adorned by objects known as spill vases. “Spills” were twists of paper, longer than today’s kitchen matches, that were intended to burn long enough to transport flame from lamp to fireplace and to allow the lighter to reach far enough into the fireplace to light a fire. Spill vases, since they were typically intended for a home’s more public rooms and/or were in a position of display on a mantel, are typically very decorative, often some sort of ceramic form with paint decoration. The potteries in Staffordshire made thousands of them in just about every imaginable form, from courting couples to hunters, whippets to elephants.
Spill vases should not be confused with match holders, which are smaller containers, often of a later manufacture, although often every bit as decorative as spill vases. Usually manufactured as small, individual or connected double containers, match holders, sometimes called match safes, come in a variety of forms, from simple glass containers to figural ones in all sorts of shapes. Forms like boots or shoes were popular, but many are in animal or insect form such as flies, owls, or a donkey hauling baskets. Match holders are also occasionally found with several other small containers meant for use as a smoking set that is designed to hold cigarettes and other tobacco-related paraphernalia. Smoking sets, often manufactured by the same companies that sold desk sets, can be elaborately decorated objects. Both spill vases and match holders occasionally utilize some natural design in order to create a design with multiple holders.
From a collecting standpoint, spill vases and match holders are a fun way to enjoy a variety of forms and media, from ceramics, to metal, to glass. Both are available at nearly all price points. Lithographed tin advertising match holders can be found for under $50, but for serious and high-end collectors, there are rare forms and decorations that can command thousands at auction. And because they are generally small, you can build a big collection without having to build an addition on your home!

Andrew Richmond

Andrew Richmond

Andrew Richmond holds degrees from Kenyon College, and the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. He has spent more than a decade in the world of antiques and fine art auctions.

Andrew is the owner of Wipiak Consulting & Appraisals in Ohio. He is a recognized expert in the antiques and art field, serving as a regular appraiser on WKET TV’s Kentucky Collectibles, and he’s conducted numerous appraisal events around Ohio and beyond.

Andrew regularly engages in academic research on American decorative arts, and has lectured widely, including venues as Colonial Williamsburg’s Antiques Forum and the Winterthur Museum’s Furniture Forum. He has published numerous articles, and has curated two landmark exhibitions on the decorative arts of his native Ohio. He serves on the boards of several museums and decorative arts organizations.

 Andrew lives in rural Ohio with his wife (and regular writing partner) Hollie Davis, their two children, and their cats.

 

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