First, I’ll rhapsodize, then I’ll wrap. John Carrera located (at Yale University), cleaned, and selected some 1,500 original engraving cuts from Webster’s International Dictionary. He spent several years organizing them into a handy and handsome volume – whose first printing sold out in three months. You can hear him talk about his incredible undertaking right here.
The book is rich in understated design detail – exactly Chronicle Books’ cup of tea. Creative director Michael Carabetta comments, “I think – in the best tradition of perusing a dictionary – this book offers the fascination of stumbling on adjacent words, plus the tactile qualities I associate with classic reference books.” Browsing any spread is endlessly entertaining – you can enjoy an illustration without any notion of what something actually is. And you can speculate or fabricate with panache. Carabetta observes, “Johnny Carrera has redefined ‘Pictionary.’” See additional alphabetically arranged archetypes from Pictorial Webster’s right here.
I like to think of December as The Month of Wrapping and delight in answering my phone “Wrap Desk.” I recently revved up my engines by wrapping a Pictorial Webster’s and its companion products. Previewing their vintage aspect appealed to me, but I didn’t want to use old newspaper pages.
The book’s exterior is so engaging that I decided not to cover it up. Glassine provided a soupçon of scientific specimen-osity. It also elevated, I think, the anticipatory ante, not unlike luscious desserts under a sparkling glass dome. And — not to flog the fibers to death, which is how glassine is made – I find it a particular pleasure to hold a heavy object wrapped in glassine. Then, I wanted the box of wall cards to look as if it had been sent, so I “sacrificed” a big envelope I had bought at a stamp show. It had been mailed in 1953, and the label was pretty brittle, so bits of it flaked on contact. For the set of rubber stamps, I used contemporary wrapping paper with big cuts of vintage writing accessories (perhaps taken from some wonderful old letterpress-printed office supply catalog). I would like to think that the way it’s tied makes it look a little like a reticule.
Photography: Michael Carabetta
Your rapt attention, please: Later this week, and next week, and probably the week after that, amusing analysis of packages wrapped in papers from Felt & Wire Shop. With matching envelopes, natch.
oh this is SO lovely! I MUST get that book!
I am so glad Chronicle published this fabulous book and therefore made it accessible to a mainstream audience (if you can call he audience for 19th century dictionary illustrations “mainstream”!).
I LOVE this book- someone sent me the youtube of Johnny Carrera showing the process he went through to create this book and it is an amazing story. I bought several copies to give as gifts – thanks Alyson for the lovely wrapping ideas- you are a treasure.
This is a great book and a great post, thank you!
beautiful blog
Wow, I’m so thrilled by this wonderful article and those wrap-jobs! I have opened a couple of my sets of the rubber stamps and modified them by trimming the rubber closer to the images so I can be clumsy and not get lines from the edge of the stamp.I printed some gift tag/cards with the rubber stamps. I also made wrapping paper stamping on a roll of old brown paper (they also look good on thin colored papers). The palm trees and the sea-horse consistently print well and each look really good when staggered – the seahorse can be flip-flopped or flop flipped to nice effect, too . ..
Likewise Wow. Johnny, thanks for your kind comments about the post and the wrap! How great that you are having fun with your rubber stamps – the cavorting seahorses sound flip ‘n’ fab. I like to stamp a repeating image in a row on the bias – and kuhnfess that I draw a light pencil line as my guide. A 45-degree stamped pattern on an envelope or envelope liner is, to me, The Ultimate. I wonder if you use “Webster” as an adjective… Websterian? Websterish? In the post, I resisted my temptation to call you the Webstermeister!