Pasadena Loaded With Gifts From Ordinary to Sublime

Holiday shoppers with a streak of hometown pride can wrap up an array of indigenous--and sometimes ingenious--presents from local artisans and institutions.

The possibilities range from an $80 keg of Pasadena-brewed beer to a scented book of Victorian poems from the Huntington Library to a $10 Tournament of Roses T-shirt sure to please any snowbound Iowans on the gift list.

Here are some other possibilities:

The Gamble House Bookstore (4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena; (818) 793-3334) features books and gifts on the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts Movement, which has deep roots in Pasadena architecture. Luminous, richly colored glass ornaments cost $25. A replica of a 12-lily Tiffany floor lamp that casts a warm, golden glow sells for $5,895.

For those on a tighter budget, $5 will buy a coloring book (“Children’s Architecture in Pasadena”), while $6.95 will purchase “Mission Furniture: How to Make It.” The Gamble House is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. It will be closed Dec. 18 to 22.

Another arts and crafts shop is Tom Gardner’s Gardner Woodcraft (2594 E. Walnut St., Pasadena, (818) 449-2594. Phone for appointment.) Gardner builds custom furniture from the period, using gleaming oak and mahogany. A replica of a dining room table designed by Frank Lloyd Wright costs about $9,000, and a mahogany “settle,” or bench-like couch, costs $2,500 to $4,000. A wall sconce runs about $500. The pieces should be purchased only for those who are willing to settle for a rain check under the Christmas tree, however. Work time is about 10 weeks.

For outdoor Arts and Crafts-style lights, consider Bob Tatosian’s Arroyo Craftsman verdigris-and-glass lanterns. A six-inch model costs $145. The lamps are available at Historic Lighting (421 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia; open 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; (818) 303-4899.)

An impressive gift for a New Year’s party host might be a 13 1/2-gallon keg of beer ($80) from Crown City Brewery, (300 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; (818) 577-5548, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily) The choices include Mt. Wilson Wheat, a golden ale, and Father Christmas, a spiced ale.

One of the first things to catch the eye in the Huntington Library Bookstore (1157 Oxford Road, San Marino; (818) 405-2141; 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday), is a poster-sized print of John James Audubon’s “Iceland Falcons,” priced at $22. The library has also printed its own 1990 wall calendars, which includes Audubon’s “Birds of America,” for $9.95.

Fans of the camellia, of which the Huntington has a renowned collection, might like the set of four English-made wooden place mats decorated with brightly colored paintings of the waxy flowers ($32). For $14.95, nature buffs can learn more about local trees in Donald R. Hodel’s “Exceptional Trees of Los Angeles,” which includes an account of a 140-year-old grapefruit tree saved from demolition by a group of gardeners.

Aficionados of women’s history might enjoy “Ho for California! Women’s Overland Diaries from the Huntington Library” ($14.95), or the $1.75 pink paperback “The Lady’s Guide to Perfect Gentility,” reprinted from an 1856 edition.

Other volumes on sale include “Henry Huntington and the Pacific Electric, An Album,” ($13.95). It recounts how Huntington, the tycoon who founded the Huntington Library and its museum and 150 acres of gardens in 1919, built what was billed as the world’s largest streetcar system. The romantic may be tempted by “A Victorian Posy: Penhalingon’s Scented Treasury of Verse and Prose,” a sweetly perfumed book of Victorian poems and other writings ($17.95). For the young poets, there is the classic favorite “A Child’s Garden of Verse” by Robert Louis Stevenson, with reproductions of the original 19th-Century illustrations by Jessie Wilcox Smith ($16.95).

For a year’s worth of pleasure, the weary shopper should consider giving a Huntington Library membership for Christmas, which entitles the recipient to perks like early admittance to plant sales and a 20% discount on bookstore purchases. Cost ranges from $35 for a basic one-year membership to $1,000 for a year as a benefactor entitled to special private receptions, tours and classes.

Across town is another Pasadena-area institution: the Tournament of Roses Souvenir Shop (59 W. Del Mar Blvd., Pasadena; (818) 795-1312, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily). For those out-of-town relatives, there is a white cotton T-shirt with a brightly colored rose on its front ($10), a baseball cap ($12), or “Tournament of Roses: First 100 Years,” a book chronicling the parade’s history ($24.95). Seats to the parade run $21 to $30 and are available at Sharp Seating Co. (709 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 140, Pasadena; (818) 795-4171.)

For indoor entertainment, tickets are available for the Juilliard String Quartet appearing Feb. 7 at the Ambassador Auditorium (300 W. Green St., Pasadena; 800-266-2378.) Prices are $19.50 to $22.50. Irish flutist James Galway and the Tokyo String Quartet appear April 19 ($36.50 to $39.50), and Mel Torme and Helen Reddy on April 24 and 25 ($24.50 to $27.50).

For the theater crowd, the Pasadena Playhouse is selling tickets at $28.50 to $35 for “The Downside, the Bottom-Line Comedy With High Yield Laughter,” playing now through Jan. 14. (39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena; (818) 356-PLAY.)

For the plant lovers on your list, try Nuccio’s Nurseries, growers of rare camellias and azaleas since 1935 (3555 Chaney Trail, Altadena; (818) 794-3383. Open 8 a.m to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Favorites among these quintessential San Gabriel Valley plants include “Scarlet Glory,” which has a deep red blossom, and “Que Sera Sera,” which has a rich coral bloom. The plants, which sell from $6 to $35, can be shipped virtually anywhere in the country, according to the proprietors.

To the south, flickering white “sanctuary candles” ($2.25) and imported, glass-eyed Spanish statues of St. Gabriel ($136) are ready to be taken home to create a private shrine. They are available from the San Gabriel Mission Gift Shop (537 W. Mission Drive, San Gabriel; (818) 282-5191; 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. daily.)

A free gift for a budding scientist might be reservations for “visitor day” at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena. Reservations for the tours, offered twice a month , must be made four to six weeks in advance. Call (818) 354-8594.

Those interested in an earlier era of travel could spend $62.95 on a four-car toy train set, or up to $11,000 for a 4 1/2-foot-long model of a working steam engine at The Original Whistle Stop, 2490 E. Colorado Blvd., (818) 796-7791. The store also offers books and calendars depicting Pasadena’s glory days as a transit hub. One calendar, “Red Cars, Yellow Cars,” gives a pictorial history of Huntington’s Pacific Electric streetcar system ($9.95).