Detlef Zschiegner (Germany)

Exhibit : Wildlife on matchbox labels

My name is Detlef Zschiegner, born 1956 in Altenburg (Thuringia), where I still live to this day. I have been collecting match labels and matchboxes since 1968, with a focus on the labels.

At the beginning of May 2021, the collection consisted of around 97,000 items, including around 5,000 book detonators and boxes and around 92,000 labels. The most intense period of my collecting activity was between 1968 and 1990, when I was a member of the AG-Phillumenie Altenburg and also took part in the annual exhibitions.

In the period from 1991 to 2016, I was only able to look after my collection very sporadically for professional reasons. Since 2017, more intensive collecting has been an integral part of my life again. In 2021 I was the only collector from Germany to take part in the first international online matchbox and match label exhibition, which was organized by the Bangladesh Matchbox Collector’s Club (BMCC) from January 1st to 15th, 2021. In July 2021 I took the opportunity to attend the Phillonex exhibition run by the Swiss Match Museum.

In addition to a large number of different national collections, the focus of my work as a collector is on my motif collections. These are:

• Vehicles
• Coats of arms and flags
• Costumes
• Plants
• Animals
• Sports
• Fire protection + accident prevention & traffic education & architecture

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