Earlier this year Darrell made a trip to Bristol for a stationery shop clearance sale. The several stock rooms were packed floor to ceiling with all sorts of treasures, many of which looked like they hadn’t been touched in over 50 years! Amongst the stacks of notebooks, dried up glue sticks and various in trays and desk tidy's he found a stack of paper ephemera as well as stacks of wrapping paper sheets dating from the 1970’s. We’ve sorted these into assorted packs and you can buy them here.
As well as these sheets there were also samples packs of Christmas cards and other wrapping paper designs. The only information I was able to find out about the wrapping paper is that it was printed in Somerset by a company called Protective Papers Limited, in 1975 on 39g paper – which is a lot thinner than the wrapping paper we are used to today (but it’s actually lovely and easy to wrap with!).
The card designs date back to the late 1940’s and I imagine the customer would look through the sample book and choose their design and have it printed with their own personal details.
I have taken a few photos of the designs to share them with you here. Hopefully this brings back some warm feelings of nostalgia – Merry Christmas!