Match holders and match strikers are not new. They have quite a grand history and have been used for centuries. Your grandparents and great-grandparents might have used them to light their stoves and candles. Even now, you can buy them as antiques or newly manufactured ones in the style of antiques. Typically, you would insert your match box inside of the match holder, and then the match friction strip on the match box would be accessible through an opening on the side of the match holder. In other cases, you would pour your matches into the match holder, and there would be hard ridges that you could strike the matches on; in this case, you'd be using "strike anywhere" matches which can be struck on any rough surface.
This is an excellent Pinterest board featuring over 400 antique match holders. I just love it.
These other websites also feature antique/collectible match holders. Some are for just for show, while others are serious antique dealers with items for sale.
Ruby Lane
Zachary Miller
Advertising Antiques
Tobacciana USA
Ebay
Etsy
These retailers have also created modern match holders for kitchen and/or fireplace matches. Many are in the style of antiques.
Jonathan Adler
Lehman's
River Junction Trade Co.
Gas Coals
Woodland Direct
Of course, handmade items are my favorite:
Ayumi Horie Pottery has a great collection of handmade match striker dishes. Very cool.
Here's great find on Etsy - Stone Matchbox Holder houses a box of kitchen matches.
Also, fellow pyros, did you know there's a name for those of us who collect match stuff? When you go to a fancy restaurant or stay at a resort hotel, do you pick up a matchbook or box of matches and put it in your pocket to use later? Even people who don't smoke or use matches will often pick up a matchbook as a souvenir, especially if the matchbook has a lovely or intriguing cover or a logo of the place it came from. If you are one of the many people who enjoy collecting matchbook-related items, then you are a phillumenist. You see there? PHILLUMENIST. We've been diagnosed and can start our own support group! (Source: The Hobby Nobody Knows: Phillumeny on Buzzle.com)
