Scratching the Surface

So many kinds of interesting ephemera, so little time.

I find match scratchers, a useful thing to have on hand back in the day of ubiquitous wooden matches, to be pretty interesting. There are all sorts of ceramic and other pottery match scratchers (also called match strikers) out there; those don’t much interest me, personally. But I do enjoy coming across examples on cardstock . . . on advertising cards, postcards, valentines, calendars. The striker itself was usually a bit of sandpaper. Many cards have diecut or grommet holes, for handy hanging on a nail near one’s stove or fireplace.

This Wistar’s scratcher also sported a circle of phosphorescent material, which would glow in the dark so that the card could be easily located in the dark . . .