Striking a Match

But now two quaint new books are paying tribute to Indian matchbox art.

Light of India: A Conflagration of Indian Matchbox Art by Warren Dotz (Ten Speed Press, $16.95) is a montage of Indian matchbox art – “radiant pink lotus flowers, red hot peppers, pouncing tigers, wrestling elephants, leaping stags, seductive gods and sultry goddesses – miniature masterpieces, bright, bold, dimunitive, and dramatic…”

Match Book: Indian Matchbox Labels (Tara Pubolishing, $19.95) by Shahid Datawala, whose fascination with matchbox labels began after finding imitators of New Ship (New Sharp, New Shep, New Swiss, and yes even New Shit), showcases 1,000 labels, ranging from Tube Light, Morning Lion and Sixty Nine to Not Not Seven

Both picture books, designed in the form of matchboxes, offer short overviews of the industry, initially domination by the Swedish Western India Match Company (WIMCO), but since Independence largely with a handful of families, known as the “Match Kings of South India.”