Christmas is fast approaching. Again. And so our minds — if they haven’t already — must turn to present buying and giving. If you’ve already fallen behind and have no idea what to buy anyone, fear not, because there’s all manner of inspiration hiding in Country Life’s extensive archive.
Read on and we’ll reveal some of the more fantastical, mind boggling and thought-provoking presents discussed inside the pages of Country Life over the last 129 years. We hope that if not inspired, you are at least entertained.
Hamley's toys have come on a bit since the Christmas Plum Pudding Novelty.
In the December 12, 1908, issue, we carried an advert for Hamley’s Christmas Plum Pudding Novelty. The toy, when inflated with gas, rose up from the candle-lit dining table, all the way to the ceiling. The advert called it ‘very exciting’; local fire stations likely disagreed.
In 1908 when this advert was published, the Velotrab cost £10 — which is equivalent to about £250 in today's money.
Sanitas Electrical Company Ltd. took out an advert in the very same issue for their Velotrab — an equine precursor to the Peloton (our words, not theirs). The sort of spin machine came with a saddle-style seat and could ‘jump up and down’, simulating the movement of a trotting horse.
A week later, The Utilift! — ‘exceedingly practical and pleasant in appearance’ — appeared in the pages of the magazine. The false bookcase with a dumbwaiter hidden inside promised to eliminate the ‘drudgery of domestic work’.
Please do not try this at home.
An infinitely more practical product made its Country Life debut in 1927 — the vacuum cleaner. First introduced in bulky form in the mid-Victorian era, by the late 1920s the device had become so compact that it could be carried around the home with comparable ease. In an article titled ‘Christmas Present Notes’, the writer highlighted The Electrolux model: ‘There is nothing likely to prove more valuable or to recall more gratefully the memory of the donor by adding to the ease and comfort of home life.’ A word to the wise: a century later, you, the donor, might also be recalled to memory, but not gratefully so. And while we’re dishing out advice, can we please suggest that you do not use the vacuum on your dog — as the article’s accompanying photograph seemed to suggest that you do.
In 1939, presents understandably took on a practical and multipurpose tone. This offering, from Gieves, is thought-provoking… At first glance, it looks like a tailored waistcoat, at second you realise that it is in fact a life jacket. The copy stated that numerous men at sea had been saved by the self-inflating waistcoat in the previous war.
The Goblin Teasmade was the Nespresso coffee machine of its time.
What’s not to like about a genius invention that wakes you up, lights up the room and then makes you a cup of tea? Well, as someone whose home was terrorised by one for much of their childhood, there’s plenty. The screeching sound of the alarm clock, the vat of boiling water balanced next to your head and a light so bright your eyelids are basically redundant. Somehow, despite all of this, the Goblin Teasmade — advertised in Country Life in 1955 — was a hugely-popular Christmas (and wedding) present up until the 1970s. And, if the internet is to be believed, it is currently having a retro resurgence. You have been warned.
