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 17th international exhibition. For this exhibition, I'm going to exhibit some beautiful Dutch labels from my collection.
Production of matchboxes started in The Netherlands around 1870 and The Netherlands had a number of match factories in Eindhoven, Breda, Weert and in some other towns which produced beautiful matchboxes. After the second world war, from 1950s, a chain of grocers shops started to produce matchboxes. Some of the well known supershops were Vivo, Végé, EDAH, De gruyter, Klimop, SRV...etc. They produced a number of set labels which depicted culture, history, heritage, life, nature, geography, constellation, sports and many other subjects. I'm exhibiting some beautiful set labels from 1960s which were issued by some of those famous supershops.
Name of Exhibition: The Dazzling Dutch
Description of first picture (1968):
- first - 12 labels and a packet label of a set showing milkcars
Description of second to fifth pictures (1963):
- second - labels 1-10 and a packet label of a set of 25 showing costumes
- third - labels 11-25 of the set shown in previous picture
- fourth - labels 26-41 of the set shown in previous picture
. fifth - labels 42-50 of the set shown in previous picture
Description of sixth to eighth pictures (1968):
- sixth - labels 1-10 and a packet label of a set of 25 showing famous women
- seventh - labels 11-19 of the set shown in previous picture
- eighth - labels 20-25 of the set shown in previous picture
Description of ninth to twelfth pictures (1961):
- ninth - packet label of a set of 36 labels showing letters and numbers
- tenth - 16 labels of the set shown in previous picture
- eleventh - 10 labels of the set shown in previous picture
- twelfth - 10 labels of the set shown in previous picture
Tema: O Deslumbrante Holandês
Theme: The Dazzling Dutch
