This vibrant and colorful set of matchbox tile covers measure 2.25" high by 1.75" across by .75" thick. They are ceramic tiles produced employing a Cloisonné technique, and are signature designs by Luciano. This set includes two matchboxes, which still retain some wood stick matches. These miniature tiles are tiny, diminutive works of art. They serve as a decorative cover for the matchboxes, made in Italy. Each cover tile depicts a moonlit seascape with a colorful edifice in partial view, all created in a tube-lined tile method to pool enamel colors and prevent them from running together. The matchboxes are made of lightweight thick paper or cardboard, with their Italian match advertisements for 'Unione Fiammiferi'. The sides serve as match strikes.  The tiles are in original studio condition, no apologies. This set of matchboxes is likely a tourist souvenir dating to c1950s. 
More about the artist:
Lamberto 'Luciano' Tastardi studied under Professor Rossi from 1940 to 1955, and began to work as a ceramic decorator, with the best ceramic factories in Salerno, such as D’Agostino and Ernestine, and Musa in Vietri sul Mare. In 1955, Luciano set up his own business, “Creazioni Luciano”. He devoted himself to hand-painted fabrics, into which he transferred the decoration of ceramics, consisting of swift and definitive brushstrokes. He devised a method of manual printing based on dipping molds – which he made himself from tire tubes – into color, obtaining abstract fantasies. His curtains, exhibited at industry exhibitions (SAMIA, MITAM), caught the attention of famous architect Giò Ponti who, thinking this was the work of a well-established manufacturer, wrote a letter to Luciano from the editorial office of Domus /(important Italian architecture/design/art magazine), expressing appreciation for his work.
Luciano invented a new technique, the Ceramic Cloisonné, that distinguished him and made his work recognizable, in Italy and abroad, work very reminiscent of the Cloisonné of goldsmiths. A completely closed relief design in which colored display cases are manually affixed to perfectly lay out during firing. The concept very similar to that of stained glass employs a white clay, which highlights the design and appears as the ideal background to enhance the colored vitreous enamels to the maximum. The new way is used to redesign that ideal world born of our traditional iconography: rural scenes, fishermen, Moorish and Mediterranean houses.