Republic Pictures/Earl Carroll Vanities

A matchbook cover opens to reveal an ad for the latest Republic motion picture; the matches are long since gone. Matchbooks were among the earliest things I collected, and the easiest--free at any restaurant in the 1960s and 1970s, but much rarer today. Many of the NYC restaurants represented in my collection no longer exist: i.e., Autopub, Cafe Mimosa, Top of the Sixes.

I found this one at a local antique and collectibles store; it possibly dates from the early 1940s.