The Art of Wrapping Gifts by Drucella Lowrie

The Art of Wrapping Gifts by Drucella Lowrie

published 1950

 

 

In the recent Important Blog Search for Matron Hats I came across a book on millinery by one Drucella Lowrie. And then – even more joy – I found that she had also written a whole book on wrapping presents, ‘with 130 illustrations’ so naturally had to read it. Feel this might be the first practical craft book I have ever blogged on. It is a book that had me – who can make a simple bought giftbag look terrible – gawping.

When my daughter was small I used to say ‘this is from both of us’ when giving gifts, until she was old enough to order me not to say that anymore as people would think she had had a hand in the general dog’s-breakfast-ness of the parcel.

If only I had had this book.

By page 25 Drucella seemed to have covered everything. The list of materials needed took up nearly nine of them. But on she went with more instructions. There was a book once with this immortal line about Frenchwomen’s style:

Their scarves alone, an entire chapter.

I feel Drucella would’ve been on board with that. 

‘Bows – an entire chapter.’

The following bows are described: glamour bow with five variations, loop bow with seven variations, pinwheel bow with one variation, poinsettia bow, hair bow, wreath bow, corsage bow, Greek bow, pussy cat bow, figure-8 bow, basket bow, tied bows with two variations.

There is a lot of general advice in it, the kind that makes you wonder who exactly the book is aimed at:

For boys and men choose wrapping paper with masculine colours designs and textures. (This is important, so is repeated later: keep off pink for boys and men)

Decorate a baby’s package with a rattle, teething ring, soap babies, tiny cans of talcum powder, powder puff, soft wash cloth…

As  soon as all the packages are wrapped, put away the remaining paper and clear the working surface so that you will have ample room for tying and bow-making.

Round here we like books, and we give and receive them. Are we ever tempted to do this with them, as recommended by Drucella? I leave you to guess the answer.

Valentines day gift: Attach a sonnet with a red seal to the package.

(You know who’d do that? Lord Peter Wimsey or Harriet D Vane - see Gaudy Night)

 

Possibly my favourite passage is coming now - I keep re-reading it: instructions on how to give money to someone. It is, by the way, clear that this performance is to make sure sufficient fuss is made of the money gift, it isn’t ignored in favour of more visible items.

"Another way of giving money is to make it into a corsage. Change old cash into shiny new coins at the bank. Wrap each coin in a 3or 4-inch square of cellophane and twist tightly underneath. Wrap one end of a pipe cleaner (red, green, or white) tightly around the twisted cellophane to form a stem. Cut stems to desired length. Arrange coins in cluster and tie stems together. Push ends through a lace-paper doily. Add a ribbon bow and place in a box. Cut away a section of the box lid and paste a piece of cellophane in back of the opening so that the corsage can be seen through the top of the package. Tie ribbon around ends of box and add a bow at one corner. (An assortment of various colored postage stamps may be made up into a colorful corsage in the same manner. This makes an appropriate decoration for a gift box of stationery. )

 

Five or more new dollar bills will make a calla lily corsage (see Fig. 58). 

Fold each bill in half, crosswise, then twist it into a funnel shape and hold with Scotch tape. Next wrap yellow yarn or gold foil paper around one end of a pipe cleaner until it reaches the thickness of a pencil and extends about 11/ inches in length. Push unwrapped end down through funnel opening, allowing the yellow end to stick up at the top as does the spike of the lily. Group the bills to form a corsage and tie with yellow and green ribbon."

 

When she’s told us an awful lot about wrapping, Drucella branches out into recommending gifts, and here I can’t decide whether there are cultural differences, or it is that the book is 75 years old, or that these suggestions are truly as mad crazy as they sound.

For your hostess: at the end of your stay, ‘give her  book on flower arrangements.’ I do feel this might be seen as insulting? What was wrong with her own flower arrangements?

“Gifts of baked or canned foods, fresh-killed fowl or other meat, an assortment of vegetables, jellies, or a basket of fruit are appropriate. So, too, are candies, flowers, fireplace logs.”

(It all sounds very Little House on the Prairie, but am also asking you: please please never give me a fresh-killed fowl)

“In some cases a canary, goldfish, or kitten may be just the thing.” (No, it is never just the thing)

Sometimes she moves smoothly between the very general and the weirdly specific, as in this list of potential  wedding gifts:

A clock, pottery, glassware, mirror, lamp with shade, blankets, sheets, teakwood vase stand, set of ash trays.

What even is a teakwood vase stand?

For a young girl’s bridal shower, the suggestion is a Lazy Susan or a silent butler, which sounds like a pair of servants (specifically, probably characters from a Georgette Heyer detective novel). I am happily in the position to be able to tell you exactly when I – a fairly average UK person – first heard of a Lazy Susan: it was in 1982. If anyone had ever given me one I would have been surprised but grateful. I had never heard of a silent butler up till reading this book.

Wrapping shower gifts involves this: ‘For decoration, there are the traditional symbols of the parasol, sprinkling pot, love birds.’

I may need a US reader to explain this sentence to me. I may need a US reader to explain the whole book to me. But my goodness I did enjoy reading it, and feel both mystified and informed, though I shan’t be following her advice..

Pictures from the book.