Swan Vestas is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

of matches. Shorter than normal pocket matches, they are particularly popular with smokers and have long used the

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...

"the smoker's match", although this has been replaced by the prefix "the original" on the current packaging. Until 2018 they were "strike-anywhere" matches, but in response to a change in EU regulations banning the necessary chemicals Swan Vestas were changed to be safety matches. Swan Vestas matches are manufactured under the House of Swan brand, which is also responsible for making other smoking accessories such as

cigarette paper Rolling paper is a specialty paper used for making cigarettes (commercially manufactured filter cigarettes and individually made roll-your-own cigarettes). List of rolling papers, Rolling papers are packs of several cigarette-size sheets, often f ...

s, flints and filter tips. The matches are manufactured by

Swedish Match Swedish Match AB is a Swedish multinational tobacco company headquartered in Stockholm. It has been owned by the American Philip Morris International since 2022. The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine ...

in Sweden using local, sustainably grown

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus. Species These species are called aspens: * ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'') * ''Populus da ...

.Leo Hickman
Should I ... use a match or lighter?
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 11 July 2006

History

The Swan brand began in 1883 when the Collard & Kendall match company in

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

near

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

introduced 'Swan wax matches'. These were superseded by later versions including 'Swan White Pine Vestas' from the Diamond Match Company. These were formed of a wooden splint soaked in wax. They were finally christened 'Swan Vestas' in 1906 when Diamond merged with

Bryant and May Bryant & May was a British match manufacturer, which today exists only as a brand name owned by Swedish Match. The company was formed in the mid-19th century as a dry goods trader, with its first match works, the Bryant & May Factory, located ...

and the company enthusiastically promoted the Swan brand. By the 1930s Swan Vestas had become 'Britain's best-selling match'. The brand is now owned by the

company. In 1994, ''Bryant & May'', in Liverpool, closed.

In popular culture

*"vestas", without the capital, appear in

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

short story " The Adventure of Silver Blaze" (1892), and finding a half-burned one is one of the clues that helps solve the crime. They also appear in the story "

The Man with the Twisted Lip "The Man with the Twisted Lip", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the sixth of the twelve stories in '' The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. The story was first published in the ''Strand Magazine' ...

", as the professional beggar Hugh Boone pretends "a small trade in wax vestas" to avoid the police. In both of these stories, "vesta" is used as a generic term for "match". * Swan Vestas make an appearance in Act 2, Scene 2 of ''

Albert Herring ''Albert Herring'', Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten. Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera '' The Rape of Lucretia''. The libretto, by Eric Cro ...

'', Benjamin Briten's 1948 opera. The eponymous protagonist fumbles around trying to light a gas mantle with the matches. He takes so long that a small explosion takes place: "Dangerous stuff, gas", says Albert. *The discovery of "an odd vesta or two" made it possible for Richard Hannay to escape confinement in John Buchan's novel ''The Thirty-Nine Steps''. *In

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophist ...

's '' Smiley's People'', a box of Swan Vestas is found in General Vladimir's pocket after his murder. That fact later reminds Smiley that Vladimir was a heavy smoker, which leads him to an important discovery. *They are mentioned in Mark Z. Danielewski's ''

House of Leaves ''House of Leaves'' is the debut novel by American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published in March 2000 by Pantheon Books. A bestseller, it has been translated into a number of languages, and is followed by a companion piece, '' The Whalestoe ...

'' on p. 466 as a personal item that Navidson decides to bring with him into the house. *Swan Vestas matches are used as an instrument in the off-Broadway and touring productions of '' Stomp'', with the actors alternating between shaking and striking full boxes of matches—with the striker heads removed—to create a musical number. *A Vesta is described by Hamm in his soliloquy about the last man on earth in Beckett's ''Endgame'' as being used to light his pipe: "I calmly filled my pipe—the meerschaum, lit it with... let us say a vesta, drew a few puffs. Aah!" *In the game '' The Last Express'', the protagonist, Robert Cath, carries a box of Vestas, the usage of which can affect certain events. *In " Goodwill To All Men", series 3 episode 9 of LWT's period drama '' Upstairs Downstairs'', Hudson the butler can be seen using Vestas to light the candles on the Bellamy family Christmas tree. *A box of Swan Vestas were found among the belongings of George Mallory, who died on Mt. Everest in 1924. This find was depicted in the 2000 documentary ''Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine''. *A box of Swan Vestas were used by

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

in '' The Beatles: Get Back''. *In the ''

Only Fools and Horses ''Only Fools and Horses'' (titled onscreen as ''Only Fools and Horses....'') is a British television sitcom that was created and written by John Sullivan (writer), John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Ki ...

'' episode "Tea for Three", Del Boy compares Rodney's combination of a badly sunburned face (from an indoor tanning bed) and a white suit to a Swan Vesta. * "Swan Vestas" are used repeatedly by the protagonist in

Len Deighton Leonard Cyril Deighton ( ; born 18 February 1929) is a British author. His publications have included cookery books and works on history, but he is best known for his spy novels. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, D ...

's '' Funeral in Berlin''.

References

External links

House of Swan
Matches 1883 introductions

History

In popular culture

Further reading

References

External links