1- A Sterling Silver English Etched Match Safe made in 1900, Birmingham. Monogrammed, measures 2". 2- A small 19th c. chased Silver Vesta Match Safe, no hallmarks, faint monogram P.S. one side. Measures 1.50". Weight is 50 grams. PROVENANCE: A Private Charleston SC Estate. The invention of the useful but somewhat hazardous strike anywhere match in the 1830s necessitated the need for vesta cases. But these small portable match safes also came to say much about the status, wealth and personality of their owner. As part of the essential dress code of the Victorian and Edwardian era they were, like the snuffbox or the propelling pencil, were made in a whole range of materials and forms from the purely functional to the deluxe and the novel. Many of the novelty figural vesta cases come from the 1880s, when smoking became fashionable. By 1920 with the invention of the petrol lighter, these faded from popular fashion.

good - antique