Vesta Cases & Match Safes

Collector

Comments

MrVesta1

(01/16/2006)

Knapsack is English, not American

Erick J.

(05/16/2006)

Your pictured Knapsack Matches case is American, not English. It was designed to be vended from the Knapsack Matches vendor, manufactured in the USA starting about 1902. The Knapsack Matches match safes have been incorrectly described as being from the American Civil War period. However, they have nothing to do with any sort of military application. Knapsack was just a descriptive brand name that was chosen due to the design of the match safe.

Additional information (including pictures of the vending machine) is contained in a reference book on coin operated machines entitled Silent Salesmen Too by Bill Enes (c. 1995 / Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 95-60464 / ISBN 0-944843-02-6).