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     "The Bluebird, tucked away on a side street off the King’s Road, was the private members' club of Terence Conran—and it was there that I picked up my first collectible matchbox. Jack had encouraged me to start a collection, noting that all the best places in London had their own matchboxes each one unique - varying in shape, colour and design. At the time, smoking was still permitted indoors, so these little matchboxes were like the calling cards of the day and beautifully elegant.

       Conran had commissioned Jack to create a series of paintings for the club,

inspired by Donald Campbell and The Bluebird,  the car he  famously drove over the salt flats of Lake Eyre in Australia one summer's day in 1964 breaking  the land speed record.  The matchbox for the club was long, slender and cobalt blue with the numbers 403.1, printed in bold white on one side, beautiful long slender matches with white tips sat lined up inside. The painting Birth of Dream hung inside the club at the entrance and could be seen through the window from the street. "

An excerpt -  'Only the Deepest Red' Recollections of the muse of Jack Vettriano, by Grace Lambert-Phillips