A box of Swan Vestas is the sort of detail Bond’s world is built from: ordinary, British, always to hand. They turn up in You Only Live Twice, where Sir James Molony lights a Romeo y Julieta with one during a meeting with M. Swan Vestas matches are still sold, in a box that looks much as it always did.
In the books and films
In the novel the match belongs to Molony. On screen, our catalogue records a box of Swan Vestas on M’s desk in several of the Bond films, in the days of Bernard Lee and again with Robert Brown, and another on the desk of Sir Hilary Bray, where they light a pipe. It is the same model throughout, the small prop that tells you whose room you are in.
Owning it now
House of Swan says the Swan Vesta has been the original since 1883. Today’s matches are made in Sweden from aspen and distributed in the UK by Republic Technologies. The old strike-anywhere match has been withdrawn, so a current box is safety matches only; a pipe, a candle or a log burner will not mind. A box holds about 85 matches on average.
We would keep one on a desk or by the fireplace, not hidden in a drawer. More in Accessories.
Specifications
| Brand | Swan Vestas, “The Original” |
|---|---|
| Maker | Republic Technologies (UK) Ltd, matches made in Sweden |
| Contents | About 85 matches per box |
| Type | Safety matches (strike-anywhere withdrawn) |
| Brand dates from | 1883 |
See the maker’s range at House of Swan.
