Exploding Ephemera

The New York Times takes a look at an auction of vintage fireworks packaging.

From the article...

Mr. Moyer, 64, a pyrotechnician and fireman in Pottsville, Pa., has been tracking firecracker packages for five decades. He has trolled antiques stores and shows, sifted through factory inventory and traded with other connoisseurs. Rarities have cost him up to four figures apiece. 

“Anything that I hadn’t heard of or seen, I had to have it,” Mr. Moyer said in a recent phone interview. Finding undamaged material requires enormous patience because it was of course meant to be disposable. “You tear the wrapper off and blow them up,” he said. 

Morphy’s estimates for most of the packages, including numerous early-1900s Chinese exports, are a few hundred dollars. The manufacturers emphasized firepower and macho appeal with illustrations of volcanoes, dragons, boxers, knights, Marines, Batman and Tarzan. They tried to attract American patriots with brand names like Yan Kee Boy and Voice of Freedom, and images of American doughboys, forts and tanks.