Matchbox Museum Offers Small View of Big History
Correspondent, Tibor Krausz, The Christian Science Monitor
Bangkok, Thailand
In the late 1930s, inspired by his father's friends trading old coins and other collectibles, the 10-year-old son of a Chinese gold dealer in the northern Thai town of Nakhon Sawan took a shine to a used matchbox.
Its stamp-size label, produced by a local match mill, showed the 19th century monarch, King Chulalongkorn, astride a white stallion. The image was modeled on the venerated king's 1908 equestrian statue, an object many Thais still regard as sacred. The boy was charmed by his find.
"I thought it was beautiful," remembers Chuan Sunthranan, now an octogenarian. A box of matches then cost just a satang (1 cent), he notes, so they …
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Publication information:
Article title: Matchbox Museum Offers Small View of Big History.
Contributors: Correspondent, Tibor Krausz - Author.
Newspaper title: The Christian Science Monitor.
Publication date: December 1, 2008.
Page number: 25.
© 2009 The Christian Science Publishing Society.
Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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