Skeem Match Cloche
Image: Skeem Design. Used for editorial review under §9.
An Anthropologie buyer quit, found a glass shape in Japan, and invented the category now sold at her old store.
Suji Meswani spent years curating Anthropologie's home department before leaving to start Skeem Design with her husband in 2004. The match cloche came from a glass shape she found in Japan, too small and clear to identify. She scaled it up, filled it with 120 matches, added a striker and cork, and created a product category that didn't exist before 2018.
Oprah picked it for her Favorite Things list. Anthropologie gave it Top Rated status. The knockoffs arrived. None are handblown.
We don't earn if you buy · Why this matters
Skeem Match Cloche ($36). Handblown glass vessel holding 120 matches with a built-in striker. Category creator since 2018. Oprah's Favorite Things, sold at Anthropologie.
The argument
Why We Chose the Match Cloche
Skeem created this category in 2018. The match cloche didn't exist before they found a glass vessel in Japan and scaled it up in Philadelphia. That matters now because Amazon has knockoffs from Qinyoung, Cinnvoice, and MILAVERA selling empty molded glass shells, no matches included, for the same price.
Skeem's cloche is handblown (each piece has unique glass thickness and color variation), comes with 120 tip-colored matches, has a built-in striker flint on the glass, and uses a real cork stopper. After the matches run out, the cloche becomes a display vessel for small objects, dried flowers, or whatever she collects.
Suji Meswani trained as Anthropologie's home decor buyer before founding Skeem, so the design sensibility comes from someone who spent a decade deciding what belongs on a well-styled shelf.
The fit
Who'll Love This
Already burns candles most evenings and cares about what sits on every surface. Owns Anthropologie or Diptyque candles but lights them with a lighter hidden behind a picture frame. This fills the one gap in an otherwise intentional living room.
Perfect for someone who
- lights candles most evenings and hates the lighter in the drawer
- treats every surface like a gallery
- gives candles as gifts and wants a pairing that looks intentional
- collects colored glass
Skip for someone who
- doesn't burn candles or use matches regularly
- has small children or cats near surfaces (thin handblown glass, 7 inches tall)
- wants scented matches, these are unscented. (Hibi incense matches burn as fragrance.)
- needs something shatter-resistant for outdoor use
Original handblown match cloche, category creator since 2018
Safe GiftUniversal appeal
The Verdict
<strong>968 Amazon reviews at 4.6 stars.</strong> 363 at Anthropologie (Top Rated). Oprah's 2019 Favorite Things. Founded in Philadelphia by a husband-wife team: she was Anthropologie's home decor buyer.
968 Amazon reviews at 4.6 stars. 363 at Anthropologie (Top Rated). Oprah's 2019 Favorite Things. Founded in Philadelphia by a husband-wife team: she was Anthropologie's home decor buyer, he was an ad art director.
Woman-owned, USA-made since 2004. The glass is thin because it's handblown, not cheap. Each piece varies slightly in thickness and color. That's real craft at $36.
What People Are Saying
968 Amazon reviews at 4.6 stars (85% five-star). Strongest theme: display-piece (76 mentions), buyers calling it a coffee table centerpiece. Quality-craftsmanship draws 37 mentions. Gift-worthy and daily-use each at 12. Negative cluster: durability (19 mentions) on match breakage in shipping and thin glass. Functional concerns, not quality failures. Anthropologie 363 reviews (4.6, Top Rated) echo the pattern: visual appeal drives purchase, fragility is the handblown tradeoff. Bespoke Post 20 reviews (4.8) confirm.
"So aesthetic and pleasing! I love the look of the glass, perfect shape and design. The matches break easily but still work and are beautiful."
"Super cute and great quality. The matches work great! Definitely made my coffee table stand out."
"Ordered these as a gift and it's really high quality. The glass color is beautiful. A bit pricey, but worth it."
"Beautiful and functional! A stylish way of storing our matches as we use a lot to light candles for that hygge vibe."
"Perfect functional and cute way to have matches easily accessible. Matches are high quality so not just for decor!"
Recognition
Featured in Oprah's Favorite Things 2019
"Your fireplace doesn't have to be located in a mahogany-paneled library to deserve a nearly foot-tall glass match cloche."
The Moment
Six weeks later, she pops the cork, draws a match from the cloche, and strikes it against the glass to light her evening candle. The cloche sits on the side table where she left it, and it will be there next year.
The Gift Scene
It won't move from that spot.
She pulls back tissue paper and the color hits first. Smoke-gray glass, or amber, or violet, standing seven inches tall with white-tipped wooden matches visible inside like specimens in a bell jar. The cork stopper sits at the bottom. She draws it out, and the matches shift with a soft rattle. There's a striker strip on the glass itself.
She picks a spot immediately: the side table where she lights her evening candle. The cloche sits next to it now, matching the surface arrangement she's been curating for months.
She didn't know match cloches existed. She didn't know she needed one. That's the reaction Apartment Therapy calls 'a niche little luxury,' the kind of object nobody buys themselves because the category lives below the radar.
The Message
What this gift says
Every detail in your space is intentional except how you light the candle. Now that's fixed too.
Who are you buying for?
Pick the person you are buying for. Here is why it works.
The worry
Getting something generic when they notice everything about design and surfaces in their home.
Handblown glass match cloche: the missing piece next to every candle on the shelf
Twelve candles on the mantel. Zero good way to light them. The Skeem Match Cloche fills a gap nobody shops for.
The Skeem Match Cloche exists in a category most people don't know about. That's why it works for a friend who notices everything. Their candle collection is deliberate. Their coffee table is styled. But the matches live in a junk drawer. This handblown glass vessel, inspired by a form found in Japan, fills that blind spot. 120 matches, a cork stopper, a striker on the glass. Once placed, it stays. The gift joins the rotation permanently.
Handblown glass triggers effort inference on sight. The brain reads color variations and thickness differences as 'made by hand' before conscious thought catches up (wu-2017). That earns the cloche a permanent display spot. For friends, choosing handblown glass at $36 signals care invested in selection, not money (fuchs-2015). Seven colors mean matching their space is easy. And category novelty means they can't compare it to anything they already own.
'A match holder seems random.' It does until you see it next to their candle. Nobody thinks to upgrade this part of the ritual. That's why it has to be a gift. 968 Amazon reviews confirm the reaction: people display it immediately and never move it. Oprah picked it. Anthropologie sells it.
Tissue paper comes away and the color registers first: smoke-gray or amber or violet glass, seven inches tall, with matches visible inside. The cork gets pulled. The striker strip gets tested. It goes next to a candle within two minutes.
Great for Birthday
Buy it for your friend $36The worry
Bringing something forgettable that ends up in a closet or gets consumed by evening's end.
A host gift that lights candles tonight and stays on the mantel forever
Wine gets opened, shared, and forgotten by Tuesday. This is still on the mantel six months later.
Garden cloches have protected seedlings since the 1600s. French bell-shaped glass domes that kept frost off delicate plants. Skeem repurposes that protective form: instead of shielding seedlings, it houses and displays matches. The vessel shape was found in Japan, scaled up in Philadelphia in handblown jewel-toned glass. For a host, this history resonates. You're bringing an object with a 400-year lineage, reimagined for the ritual of lighting a candle in someone's home.
Host gifts need to be substantial enough to show thought, accessible enough to avoid obligation. $36 hits that range. Handblown glass triggers the effort heuristic (wu-2017): the host reads glass variations as 'made by hand' and places it on display rather than storing it. The handmade signal conveys respect for their space, not affection (fuchs-2015 at reduced intensity), which is the right register for hosts. Immediately functional. Permanently decorative.
'Matches as a host gift?' The cloche reframes the question. It's handblown glass that happens to hold matches. After the matches are gone, it becomes a display vessel for whatever the host collects. At $36, it costs the same as decent wine and stays in their home indefinitely.
Handed over at the door, no card needed. The colored glass dome with matches visible inside explains itself. Within minutes it's next to a candle already burning. It stays there for the rest of the night, and the next, and the one after.
Great for Housewarming
Buy it for your host $36The worry
Giving mom another gift she smiles at politely and puts in the closet with the others.
Mom's evening candle ritual, upgraded: handblown glass, 120 matches, striker on the glass
Mom lights a candle every evening. The candle cost $45. She lights it with a 50-cent lighter she hides behind a frame.
Suji Meswani was Anthropologie's home decor buyer before founding Skeem with her husband in 2004. They named the company after their 'scheme' to leave corporate life. The Match Cloche came from a vessel found in Japan, tiny and clear, scaled up into handblown jewel-toned glass holding 120 matches. For mom, this matters: the object was born from a woman's decision to trust her own taste. The same instinct mom exercises every time she arranges her evening candle on the side table.
The love transfer (fuchs-2015) peaks for child-to-mom. When conveying affection, handmade products carry more weight. Each cloche is handblown, and the glassblower's care becomes symbolically embedded. When a child selects this, craft effort transfers as evidence of their own care. The effort heuristic (wu-2017) ensures permanence: mom reads handblown glass as worth preserving. Preservation of a gift from her child is reverence. Seven colors mean matching her room is easy.
'A match holder for mom?' Think of it as a handblown glass display piece that arrives pre-loaded with 120 matches. After they're gone, she'll fill it with dried flowers or small treasures. 968 Amazon buyers rated it 4.6 stars. Oprah chose it for her 2019 Favorite Things.
She holds it to the window. The handblown glass throws color across her hands. She finds the cork, draws a match. Already planning placement: next to her evening candle, on the side table reserved for things she loves.
Great for Mother's Day
Buy it for your mom $36The worry
Giving her something basic she'll be polite about but never display.
Outsmarts her taste: a handblown match cloche from a category she didn't know existed
She found that vase before the blogs did. You need a gift from a category she hasn't discovered yet.
Skeem started as a novelty barware company. A customer asked them to make candles from the glasses. That pivot eventually produced the match cloche in 2018: a vessel found in Japan, scaled up into handblown jewel-toned glass holding 120 matches. For a close friend with taste, this origin story is part of the gift. She'll retell it when someone asks about the glass dome on her coffee table. Your reputation for good taste rises with hers.
The effort heuristic (wu-2017) explains why the cloche passes even the highest taste bar. Handblown glass triggers automatic effort inference regardless of price. Her brain reads the color variations and concludes 'made by hand' before she can rationalize. That earns permanent display. The love transfer (fuchs-2015) works at full strength in close friendships: handblown glass at $36 signals care, not budget. Category novelty means she can't compare it to anything she already owns.
'She probably already has one.' She doesn't. Skeem invented the category in 2018. Even design-obsessed people haven't seen this because it doesn't live in categories they browse. The founder was Anthropologie's home decor buyer. That credential satisfies the highest internal vetting.
She opens the box and reaches for her phone. The Violet glass is photographable before she asks what it is. Cork, matches, striker on the glass: each discovery layers. Group chat gets a photo. Then it goes on her coffee table next to the design books
Great for Birthday
Buy it for your best friend female $36The worry
Gift card says lazy, anything personal says awkward. Landing between the two feels impossible.
More interesting than a gift card, less awkward than anything personal: $36 in glass
Office holiday exchange: gift cards stacked, polite smiles, forgotten by January. The Match Cloche breaks the pattern.
Suji Meswani left Anthropologie where she bought home decor. Her husband left advertising. They named the company 'Skeem' after their scheme to escape corporate life. In 2018 they invented the match cloche: handblown glass from a Japan discovery, filled with 120 matches and a striker. Oprah chose it in 2019. For a colleague, this story resonates without getting personal. It's about creative ambition and a product someone with a trained eye invented.
For colleagues, the handmade effect (fuchs-2015) operates at reduced intensity, which is ideal. Handblown glass signals thoughtfulness without implying affection, the right register for professional relationships. The effort heuristic (wu-2017) operates at full strength regardless: the brain reads handblown glass as worth preserving regardless of who gave it. At $36 it sits in the office-gift sweet spot: above gift cards, below obligation. Smoke glass is universally safe.
'A match holder for a colleague?' At $36, it's the same budget as a gift card with ten times the impression. Woman-owned, USA-made, Oprah-endorsed. The brand story is professionally admirable without requiring an emotional speech. Smoke glass works in any home.
Unwrapped at the exchange: Smoke-colored glass with matches inside. Interesting enough to break gift-card monotony. Goes home that evening. Lands on a bathroom shelf or entryway console. Professional enough to give, beautiful enough to display.
Great for Christmas
Buy it for your colleague $36The bottom line
The 120 matches run out, but the handblown glass stays and becomes a vessel for dried lavender, sea glass, or whatever she collects. At $36, you bought a display piece that arrived disguised as a practical gift.
From our research
Apartment Therapy's editor says the cloche is 'practically omnipresent' in designer homes and one of their most purchased gift guide items. For a category that didn't exist before 2018, that's fast.
Skeem started as a novelty barware company. A customer asked if they'd make candles. Those candles led to matches. The match cloche category exists because someone asked one unexpected question.
Amazon knockoffs sell empty shells. Only Skeem ships 120 matches, a striker, and a cork. Copies got the shape but missed the product.
The score
Handblown colored glass with cork creates sculptural silhouette. Photographs like a gallery piece across every color.
Vessel shape discovered in Japan, reimagined for matches. Most people don't know decorative match cloches exist.
Pairs with any candle gift. Unwrapping reveals jewel-toned glass dome with matches — instant display piece for mantels.
968 Amazon reviews (4.6 stars) + 363 Anthropologie reviews + Oprah's Favorite Things 2019
The evidence
Why we trust this
Multi-platform review coverage: 968 Amazon reviews (4.6 stars, 85% five-star), 363 Anthropologie reviews (4.6 stars, Top Rated), 20 Bespoke Post reviews (4.8 stars). Oprah's Favorite Things 2019. V&A Museum brand collaboration. Woman-owned, USA-made, founded 2004. Minor complaints: match breakage, thin glass. Anthropologie includes incentivized reviews which slightly reduces confidence. No Reddit or forum discussions found.
The research behind this
5 claims independently verified - last verified April 19, 2026
Verified against
Quick facts
- Price
- $36
- Feels Like
- $55 Handblown glass with cork and striker. Similar Anthropologie glass pieces start at $50+.
- Brand
- Skeem Design
- Category
- Candles & Fragrance
- Aesthetic
- Modern Classic
- Gift Type
- Safe Gift
- Type
- Keepsake
Value
Handblown glass at a price that pairs easily with any candle gift. Outlasts hundreds of matchbooks.
Common Questions
Each cloche is handblown from colored glass, not molded. Skeem's founders discovered the vessel shape in Japan and scaled it up in Philadelphia. The glass has a cork stopper and striker flint. Because they're handblown, no two have identical thickness or color saturation. Seven colors: Violet, Smoke, Sky, Olive, Amber, Mushroom, Apricot.
The $36 covers handblown glass, 120 wooden matches, and a built-in striker. Amazon knockoffs sell empty molded shells without matches for the same price. After the matches run out, the cloche becomes a display vessel. Oprah selected it for 2019 Favorite Things and Anthropologie rates it Top Rated across 363 reviews.
Anyone who burns candles regularly. The cloche pairs with any candle to create a curated set. Strongest for friends and hosts who style every surface in their home. Also works for moms with an evening candle ritual and colleagues at the office gift exchange. At $36, it fits any gift budget. Seven color options let you match the recipient's space.
Skeem sells match refill packs separately. The gift box version includes a refill and extra striker. Once empty, the cloche was designed for reuse. Skeem suggests displaying 'a found specimen' like a naturalist's cabinet. Owners fill them with dried lavender, sea glass, or small treasures. Sustainability is central to the brand.
Suji Meswani and Geoff Weiser founded Skeem in Philadelphia in 2004. Suji was previously Anthropologie's home decor buyer. 'Skeem' comes from their 'scheme' to leave corporate life. Woman-owned, USA-made, manufactured and shipped from the same location. Acquired by DHOME in 2021. The brand holds a collaboration with London's V&A Museum.
No more questions? Buy it for $36
How We Validated This
- Official Skeem Design Official
- Official Skeem About Page
- Reviews Amazon Product Page
- Retailer Anthropologie
- Press Oprah Favorite Things 2019
- Retailer Bespoke Post
- Retailer Lulu and Georgia
- Official DHOME V&A Collection
