My name is Al-Razee Anonnya, I'm much known to the matchbox collectors as "Robert Burns", a nickname that has been stuck to me over the years. I have been an ardent follower of Robert Burns, one of the finest poets from the Romantic era of English literature from my childhood and that's why my family members and near and dear ones named me "Robert Burns" which later became my nickname. I have been collecting from March, 2018. I collect anything related to matchboxes. Right now, I have over 12,000 different matchboxes and over 18,000 different labels. I am an inhabitant of Bangladesh. We have an international organization for matchbox collectors in Bangladesh which is named as "Bangladesh Matchbox Collectors' Club (BMCC). I'm working as the joint general secretary there. I have the highest number of matchbox labels in my collection in Bangladesh. From BMCC, we publish souvenir matchboxes frequently on different topics. I'm a part of the team which orchestrates that event. I usually provide ideas on different topics and write miniature histories on those topics which are depicted on the back surface of the matchbox.

This is going to be my 16th international exhibition. For this exhibition organized by BMCC and AMCCS(Australian Match Cover Collectors' Society), I'm going to exhibit some beautiful Swedish labels from my collection.

Sweden has always been regarded as the gold mine for matchboxes since the beginning of matchbox industries because of it's glorious history of manufacturing matchboxes and pioneering contribution on innovating safety matches. Swedish matchboxes have beautiful and mesmerizing artworks which depict Swedish culture, history, heritage and other colourful events from across the globe. Sweden has also produced matchboxes for other countries over the years which have represented the vivid and variegated cultures of those countries also. That's why, Swedish matchboxes and labels will always be on top of my priority list. And therefore, my exhibit consists of pictures of some of those beautiful Swedish labels which have been issued by Sweden for herself and some other countries.

Sweden had a number of matchbox manufacturing factories which were famous for producing beautiful and mesmerizing matchboxes. Jönköping Westra and Vulcan are two of those famous matchbox factories which have produced a good number of matchboxes with marvellous artworks over the years. In 1845, Johan Edvard Lundström and his younger brother Carl Francs started the construction of the famous Jönköping Westra Match Factory which has issued matchboxes with marvellous artworks on interesting themes and earned reputation worldwide. Besides issuing matchboxes for Sweden, it also issued matchboxes for some other countries. Later this famous matchbox factory was turned into a museum where the glorious history of the factory has been depicted in an interesting way. And Vulcan is another old match factory of Sweden which started it's journey in 1868 at Tidaholm in Sweden. Like Jönköping, Vulcan also issued matchboxes of variegated themes and also earned appreciation from matchbox collectors across the globe for their sene of beautification and aesthetics. Later Jönköping and Vulcan worked jointly and issued beautiful matchboxes. Touched by the glorious past of this two factories and their beautiful artworks, I'm displaying matchbox labels of this two famous factories this time.

Swedish Aesthetics

Brand name: PARROT

The label on top is packet label and the label on bottom is gross label

Manufactured by: Jönköping Westra Match Factory

Issued in: 1898

Matchbox and packet labels which depict a colourful flying Macaw bird

Manufactured by: Jönköping Westra Match Factory

Brand Name: THE HAMMOCK

A beautiful lady on a cradle with a fan on left hand and a book on right hand and the lady is wearing yellow dress. Background colour is yellow and colour of the ground is lighter.

Manufactured by: Jönköping Westra Match Factory

Brand Name: THE HAMMOCK

A beautiful lady on a cradle with a fan on left hand and a book on right hand and the lady is wearing greenish-blue dress. Background colour is yellow and colour of the ground is darker.

Manufactured by: Jönköping Westra Match Factory

Matchbox and packet labels depicting beautiful butterflies

Manufactured by: Jönköping Westra Match Factory

Timeline: 1910s

Matchbox and packet labels which depict four coins and an elephant and a cock.

Manufactured by: Jönköping Westra Match Factory

Manufactured for: Singapore

Imported by: Paterson, Simons & Co. Ltd.

Brand name: THE LION

A white colored lion is seen in the centre. Colour of the pyramid and ground is red and background colour is black