Lighting up the world

Japan, circa 1900

Japan, circa 1910

Jumbo size Japanese labels, circa 1920

Japan, circa 1935

China

India, circa 1930

Czechoslovakia, circa 1950

Russia, circa 1960

Russia, circa 1965

Germany

All these great match labels come from wackystuff's wonderful ephemera collection on flickr. I have always been attracted to ephemera, and when a teenager I dabbled in vintage items ranging from small razor blade boxes to foulard souvenirs and old fascist notebooks. But I never managed to become a serious collector like wackystuff, aka Jeffrey Errick, who in the eighties used to explore San Francisco thrift stores and flea markets, and is now generously sharing many of his treasured finds on the web. Jeffrey is also a mail artist, and you can go see his postcards and trading cards on his blog and tumblr.