Matchbox
Object number2012.122.33
Date1921-2005
OriginItaly
MediumCardboard, wood
Credit LineGift of Joan and Steve Isack
DescriptionWhite matchbox with black and blue printing and a white compartment inside. Striker on each side of the box. Contains 22 blue-tipped wooden matches. Image of a blue fish on the front. On the back is a shield with a crab, fish, and lobster in the center surrounded by scrollwork and a seahorse on each side.Dimensions0.437 x 1 x 1.625 in. (1.1 x 2.5 x 4.1 cm)InscriptionsTop reads: "Poli / restaurant / and / lounge".
On top right side reads: "murray ave. / squirrel hill / pittsburgh, pa." On top left side reads: "made in Italy".
Bottom reads: "POLI / IF IT SWIMS WE HAVE IT".
Historical NotesPart of a collection from the Ilkuvitz Clothing Store in Clairton, Pennsylvania. The store was founded by Edward J. Ilkuvitz, an Orthodox Jew who immigrated to the United States from Hungary in the early 1900s. He started out peddling to the mill community of Clairton, Pennsylvania, before finally opening a store in the 1920s. The store was located on Miller Avenue and Edward Ilkuvitz built the store and the apartment above it, which still bears the name on the building. Edward's son Norman took over the store and operated it into the 1990s. The last 10 to 20 years that the store operated, Norman did not order much inventory, and it was mainly a social spot for some of the older residents in Clairton. Norman kept merchandise from the 1940s on the shelves and it remained a time capsule of a typical 1940s/1950s general store in a mill community. The collection includes a sampling of records and inventory to represent the kinds of things people were purchasing and much of the records show who Edward and Norman were ordering from, stretching back to the early 1900s when Jewish wholesalers on Fifth Avenue were providing much of the merchandise to outlying general stores. The collection also includes a small sampling of items from the family's apartments above the store that represent their Jewish heritage.
Related institution
Poli's Restaurant
Related institution
Ilkuvitz Clothing Store
Related person
Edward J. Ilkuvitz
Related person
Norman Ilkuvitz
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