Matson Line Oceanic Line match book

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Matchboxes
Date: 1926 - 1941
Place: California, United States of America; Hawaii, United States of America; South Pacific; Samoa; Australia; New Zealand; Fiji
Materials: Paper
Collection: Terence Lane collection
Accession number: 1999.0017.0164

Description

Matchbook with a gold and white four-panel checked front cover. 'Matson Line' is printed in one of the gold squares and 'Oceanic Line' is in the other. One of the white sqaures contains the black silhouette of a grass skirt-wearing dancer and the other a kangaroo.

About the collection

This collection consists of approximately 180 objects of Australiana, predominantly featuring the kangaroo. It encompasses a wide range of styles produced in Australia and overseas over a period of 150 years. The collection is diverse and includes decorative art objects, such as a Doulton umbrella stand, as well as an assortment of ephemera from several postcards to a matchbox. This collection has been amassed by Terence Lane, a former Senior Curator of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria over a period of 20 years. During this period, many of the items collected were not in high demand. However, they have since become eagerly sought and the result is a collection which has increased in cultural value. It is considered the best collection of kangaroo theme items in Australia.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 4:59:27 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.