Vintage ad for Jays Mourning Warehouse

Decoration Notes

It is not wise to copy some of the city fashions; for instance, one fashion followed in the city regarding windows. I call it “casket fashion.” In some streets of our great cities the windows from the first floor to the roof are draped with two sets of curtains and window shades of the purest white; the curtains are looped stiffly back with pure white satin ribbons. On looking at them my first impression is that there is a death in the house and that it is an infant or young person. I cannot help fancying that I smell funeral flowers. The casket-like draping of the windows is horrible and sends a chill through the frame of one who loves color and warmth. If white must be used, let it have a creamy tone, the deeper the better, and do have ecru or buff holland shades, and not dead-white, next to the glass. Avoid, also, the white satin ribbons.

Victorian Easter Egg Made of China

Break out the bombazine and horse glue, because it’s time to decorate Easter Eggs, Victorian style!

From one of my favorite antique books comes these fine examples of Victorian Easter eggs. Household Elegancies, by Mrs. C. S. Jones and Henry T. Williams was published in 1877 and is full of amazing illustrations and advice on decorating every part of your home, including the humble egg. Click on the illustrations for a closer look, you may also use these images as Victorian Easter clip art if you wish.

With many it is a curious fancy, to dress Easter-eggs in elegant forms and keep as toilet elegancies, and we introduce several designs showing how this may be beautifully carried out, and result in charming effects.

This china egg is hollow and open at the dull end, so that it can be set up on end, or when given as a present, filled with candy or some valuable article, while it may be closed with a cork decorated with ribbon bows. Such eggs which have the not very poetic but certainly useful mission of helping in the darning of stockings, are generally white, a tempting subject for painting, to those who can skillfully wield a brush. But they may also be procured colored, and when decorated with ribbon bows, make a pretty and welcome Easter gift.

BOILED EASTER-EGG, WITH ETCHING

Example of an Etched Victorian Easter Egg

A very pretty Easter gift is a boiled colored egg, on which, as on colored porcelain, the most various designs, monograms, pictures and the like, may be etched with a fine penknife. As hard-boiled eggs do not decompose, this forms a durable mark of remembrance. The brown color on our model, is produced by boiling the egg in water filled with onion peels.

Victorian Easter Egg Hanging Basket

EASTER-EGG AS HANGING-BASKET WITH FLOWERS

Open a hen, duck, or goose egg at the pointed end; let all the contents run out, and cut the upper, smaller half away with small sharp scissors; fill it almost up with earth, and plant a sedum, which, despite the small space, thrives splendidly and spreads out its little twigs on every side. As outer decoration for this improvised flower-pot, a net-work of crochet suspended by cord made of chain-stitches, and trimmed with tassels, will do nicely. In the model, the net is crocheted of scarlet silk; Fringe is knotted in at the top, and a string drawn through to make the net fit firmly to the egg. Draw the net together at the bottom, and finish off with a tassel.

EASTER-EGG AS BONBONNIERE

This sweet little toy is made of a bonafide egg, cut through very carefully in the middle; the edges are furnished with a narrow binding of soft-colored paper, beneath which, for the sake of strength, a narrow strip of card-board is pasted. A strip of card-board, one-fifth of an inch wide, covered with the same colored paper, is pasted within one of the halves, partly projecting, and serves to close the two parts, as plainly seen in the illustration. The rest of the decoration consists of narrow gold braid pasted inside and out, at the edges of the paper binding. A skillful hand may easily execute a monogram, or wreath of flowers on the outside of the egg. Decalcomanie may also very suitably be employed.

Victorian Easter Egg Gift Basket

EASTER-EGG AS HOUSEWIFE

Materials: Tulle, zephyr worsted, white sewing-silk and crape, colored silk and watered ribbon three-fifths of an inch wide, narrow blond lace. As may be seen in the illustration, our model is provided with the necessary sewing-materials for embroidery. The outer decoration consists of tulle drawn through with zephyr worsted and sewing-silk, beneath which, the tulle is almost hidden, leaving a peculiar sort of net-work. The pattern of this pretty design is worked of worsted and cross-stitches of white sewing silk. We would here mention that this work is very suitable for children’s hats. For each of the two oval halves of the necessaire, work a piece of tulle seven and one-fifth inches long, and five and one-fifth inches wide; round it at the corners; line it with blue or pink silk, and baste it to a piece of card-board. The outer rim is then marked at even distances, into twelve parts; between these cut out points one-fifth of an inch wide, one and one-fifth inches deep. Bind the incisions with silk ribbon; by drawing them together the arched form is produced; tack in the silk lining; wire it on the edge, and finish off with a binding of ribbon. Ornamental stitches of colored silk decorate the outer side; the inner margin is finished off by a narrow blond lace. The piece that covers the rims is to be fastened to one of the perfectly equal parts, and consists of a strip of card-board two-fifths of an inch wide; it is covered on the inside with silk, on the outside with white crape taken four-fold; it is edged on either side with button hole stitches, and decorated along the center with herring-bone stitches. Two pretty bows, one within and one without, conceal the spot where the parts are connected, and ribbon serves to tie the halves together.

Victorian Easter Egg Gift Box

A simple but effective decoration is made by arranging a large mat of holly or evergreens in the center of the table, with a Santa Claus standing upon it, his pack filled with bonbons and mottoes. A light wreath made of evergreens, sprigs of holly and red berries should be formed around the table, about fourteen inches from the edge. Sift over the green mat and wreath a Jack Frost powder or powdered isinglass, which will glisten in the candle light like the frost. If candelabra are used they should be placed at the ends of the table, but if one has the tall, old-fashioned silver candlesticks, place one at each corner of the table inside of the wreath.

Another decoration that is exceedingly pretty, and may be used in place of the mat and Santa Claus, is made by cutting a large five-pointed star out of white sheet wadding (editors note: quilt batting of the kind that comes in rolls or by the yard, is pretty much the same as “sheet wadding”). Pull the wadding apart and place the smooth side down in the center of the table and cover thickly with Jack Frost powder. Out­line the edge of the star with small pieces of holly; stand in the center of the star a silver or glass bowl filled with holly twigs and branches of red berries. A bell or large ball covered with red immortelles, or a ball made of holly leaves and berries and mistletoe, suspended low from the chande­lier over the centre of the table by a satin ribbon, is a handsome and appropriate decoration. Long red ribbons intertwined with ground pine or cedar are festooned from the chandelier to the four corners of the table, two corners being finished by standing loops of the ribbon mingled with holly and mistletoe. Upon the two opposite corners place silver candelabra, holding white candles and shades, each shade ornamented with a bunch of holly berries and a few leaves.

A decoration that will please the little ones is a miniature Christmas tree in the center of the table. Secure a small but perfectly shaped cul­tivated pine, make a bank of evergreens and holly to cover the jar holding the tree, ornament the tree with light but sparkling trinkets, tinsel fringe, and dust with Jack Frost powder. Arrange two ribbons diagonally across the table, fastening along them hero and there twigs of evergreens or holly, and in the two opposite corners place the candelabra upon mats of green, the candles capped with red and white shades.

With walls and mantel of a dining-room hung with graceful festoons and ropes of greens, with plenty of light and warmth, bright faces and good cheer everywhere, the Christmas decorations will be a success.

Source: The People’s Home Journal, 1897

A Window Flower-Box

From The Cottage Hearth, 1876

Window Flower Box

Given fresh mosses or leaves, a few trailing creepers and two or three spikes of flowers, and the effect will be charming in a window box made after any of the following descriptions. These methods are all cheap and feasible for securing the effect desired.

The box may be made of zinc, painted to suit one’s taste, or of common white pine stained and oiled, with a strip of molding or a few lichens and fir cones tacked on by way of ornament. Or prettier still, it may be turned into a rustic affair by covering it withy narrow horizontal lengths of rough-barked wood. Birch bough or laurel, or both alternating, will answer, halved lengthwise with the saw, and cut into sections to fit the box, the shelf which supports it being edged with the same. Or a gaily colored affair may be made with narrow strips of oilcloth, finished off with a wooden molding at top and bottom, a set pattern being chosen of bright solid colors, like the tiles, which are so much in vogue for more expensive arrangements. Or a most unique and tasty box may be made by first painting it white, then lay ferns, green or pressed ferns, upon the sides in tasteful designs, and sift clean brown sand over the whole side, after which remove the ferns, and the fern designs with all their delicate tracery of fronds, will appear distinctly in white.

The box we illustrate here was ornaments with a mixture of acorns and pounded shells. Cut all the acorns in half lengthwise. Cover the box with glue. Make an edge each way of acorns, and then cover the box all over with rows of acorns moderately close together. Sift the pounded shell all over the box thickly between the acorns. The acorns are varied with cone seeds and red berries cut in half.

Whatever style of box is used, unless the window seat is of unusual width, brackets must be put underneath, or a stronger pine shelf must be adjusted in the recess to support the box, and the edge which fronts the room just be ornamented or stained to match.

Venice Seed Cake

by C. H. K., from The Cottage Hearth, June 1877

The accompanying illustration shows a very effective style of icing or frosting combining richness of color and contrast, yet free from any deleterious ingredient in the matter of color. Proceed as follows:

Bake a pound, sponge, or any other cake, in a large shallow tin; when baked and cold, turn it bottom up, brush off the crumbs, have ready (prepared according to the instructions for making frosting), enough frosting to thinly cover it.

Divide the frosting into two parts, let one remain plain white, color the other any desired color of pink you choose, with cochineal, or prepared vegetable pink color, place it in two separate paper cones, same as you use for ornamenting purposes.

Now take a tablespoonful of chocolate, warm it in a teacup and thin it a little with white of eggs, place this in another cone; cut off the points of each cone sufficient to admit of the sugar, &c., being pushed out the size you require it, then force it out across the cake in straight lines, chocolate, white, red, alternately; when the bottom is covered in this manner, take a knife and draw it from Fig. 1 to 2 in illustration, then 3 to 4, and so on till complete. It will then show as in illustration.

Then with the plain white sugar cone, run a fancy border round the edge as in Fig. II and it is complete. Set it by to dry, then place a dish with fancy paper under, and serve to table. The dark lines, medium and white, in the illustration, represent dark for chocolate, medium for pink sugar, and white for white sugar.

German Christmas Angel

This Victorian era article was originally published in The Cottage Hearth, December 1876

The popular custom of preparing Christmas trees for the delight and amusement of young and old, increases yearly; and the question, “How shall I trim one?” is often asked. In the Country Gentlemen, “Daisy Eyebright” tells how to do this. I shall try to answer it. If you can obtain the tree from some pine woods near at hand, select a finely shaped fir balsam or spruce, with firm branches, and about nine or ten feet in height. Then spread a large sheet over one end of the parlor carpet, and put a good-sized tea chest in the center of it.

The lower limbs of the tree must be sawn off so that it can be firmly fixed into the box; and any small heavy articles, like weights and flatirons, can be put in for ballast, to keep the tree firmly in place. Then fill up the box with hard coal. The chest must be concealed with some pretty material; old curtains will answer the purpose, or the American flag; and a white furry robe is also suitable. Drape these articles close to the tree, and let them trail a little on the floor, to make a graceful sweep.

Now the tree is planted, and we must proceed to decorate it. Make chains of popped corn, strung together with needle and thread; at least a dozen yards will be none too much for a large-sized tree, and the pure white festoons entwined amid the dark green branches of the tree produce a fine effect.

We must also have chains made either of glazed scarlet, gilt or silver; cut the paper into small strips, four inches long and not half an inch in width; fasten the two ends of each strip together with flour paste, and make half of them into rings; then take the rest and make into similar rings, but first slip each strip through two of the dried rings before joining the ends. In this manner all the slips of paper are interlaced, and we have a chain of rings which will greatly adorn our tree. They must be festooned in long, graceful loops from limb to limb, and the effect is very charming.

All this work the children can do, and it will add greatly to the entertainment of the long evenings at this season. They can also assist in covering English walnuts with tinfoil, or gilt paper, and in filling small apples with cloves, which will serve to keep moths from the drawers of our bureaus, and therefore make inexpensive but acceptable presents.

If we posses a cracked mirror we must take it to the glazier’s, and ask him to cut it into two inch squares. Around the edges and across the backs colored paper must be pasted, and long ribbon loops attached to the backs by which to suspend them behind the tiny wax candles, where they will do duty as reflectors.

Fancy glass balls of all colors can be purchased for a few cents each; and several dozen of colored wax candles, with tin rests to attach them to the tree, can be bought. Self-balancing candle holders can also be found at most toy shops, and need only to be placed on the branches. If these cannot be obtained, common copper wire can be heated a little way, and the other end can be twisted firmly about the branch. If the wicks are brushed over with a little kerosene put on with a camel’s hair brush, they will light very quickly.

The light, showy gifts can be suspended upon the tree, but the heavier ones must be laid upon the piano or table, or else wrapped in paper and arranged around the base of the tree. A pair of scissor must be in readiness to cut the gifts from the branches. When such a tree is trimmed, filled with gifts and lighted, it is indeed a beautiful sight — a graceful green pyramid, with the numberless little jets of flame, trembling and flashing mirrors, garlands of bright hues — all brightness, sparkle and color. Try it, fair friends, and see for yourselves how lovely it is.