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M. FORD CREECH ANTIQUES & FINE ARTS
 

www.mfordcreech.com

"....In a Wonderland they lie

Dreaming as the days go by"

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Wintertime approaches.

The days slowly grow shorter.

The daft daydreams of summer all but disappear.

And we resume our ‘Monthly Maps’ with

Meetings, Money matters, and Managing far-too-many Messages...

("...they drew... everything that begins with and 'M'...

...such as Mouse-traps and the Moon, and Memory and 'Muchness'.

Ever see a drawing of Muchness?")

Where did all the marvelous summer-time magic go?

Since September, TIME has become predictable, logical, orderly - so very "sensible".

("NO, NO! Adventures first - explanations take such a dreadful TIME.")

...And TIME! ... Never! to waste TIME - it is a virtue to be 'On TIME'.

("If you knew 'TIME' as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk about wasting IT.

It’s HIM... I dare say you never even spoke to TIME!")

Anyway, late fall and winter are dank and gray - so should they not be very 'matter-of-fact' seasons?

Much! Much! can be accomplished then. Much! "-- and yet -- and yet --"

"You're not the same as you were before. You were much more...'Muchier'.

YOU'VE LOST YOUR MUCHNESS!"

But 'TIME'... who can do almost anything with his watch... also brings us :

"The Wonderland of Christmas",

wherein we can follow the jacketed white rabbit

D

O

W
N

the hOle

tO a wOrld in which

the Only real sense is just nO sense at all!

Alice : 'Do you think I've gone round the bend?'

Cheshire Cat : 'I'm afraid so. You're mad,

bonkers, completely off your head.

But I'll tell you a secret.

All the best people are.'

'DRINK ME'
'...(it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple,

roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast)...'
 

Fine Silver-Mounted Carved Lignum Vitae Goblet
England, 17th Century
The silver-rimmed cup-shaped bowl having various intricate horizontal bands of engine turnings,
raised on a short horizontally ribbed wavy wrythen stem

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it :
'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming.
'There's plenty of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.
March Hare :  Have some wine.
Alice looked all round the table - there was nothing on it but tea!
Alice : I' don't see any wine.
March Hare : There isn't any.

Caughley Porcelain Miniature (Toy) Part Tea Service,"Island Pattern", England c1780

Including : Three Trios (Saucer, Coffee Cup & Teabowl)

Four Large Oval Serving Dishes

Pair of Smaller Oval Serving Dishes; and a Pair of Small Dishes and a Saucer

and a Rare Early 18th Century Silver Hanoverian Rat-tail Mustard Spoon, c1720

March Hare to Alice : Take some more tea.
Alice : I've had nothing yet, so I can't take more.
Hatter : You mean you can't take less - it's very easy to take more than nothing....

...Your hair wants cutting!

More..... (Left to right)

First Period Worcester Mug  Natural Sprays, c1770

Caughley Miniature (Toy) Coffee Cup & Saucer  Pleasure Boat, c1785-90

Scarce Lowestoft Miniature (Toy) Teabowl & Saucer  Island Pattern, c1762-65

Scarce Lowestoft Miniature (Toy) Teabowl & Saucer  Island Pattern, c1762-65

Good Early Worcester Molded Teabowl & Saucer  Fisherman & Willow, c1755-60 (exhibited)

...the last time Alice saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot...

Scarce Chinese Export Pseudo Tobacco Leaf Teapot

China, c1765

Featuring exotic leaves, and four long-tailed rodents (in this case, tree squirrels)

in pursuit of sweet peaches

Alice : 'I’ll never go THERE again!... It’s the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life! '

QUEEN : Can you play croquet?

Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life -

 it was all ridges and furrows - the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes

George III Silver Salver
Richard Rugg, London, London, 1766-67
centering a cypher monogram “WP” beneath a hedgehog (porcupine)

The hedgehog is an ancient symbol of one who is a thoughtful provider.

'Will you walk a little faster?', said a whiting to a snail.
There's a porpoise close behind us, and he’s treading on my tail.**
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle - will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?
 

  ** Mock Turtle : No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.

Alice : Don’t you mean 'purpose'?

I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie -
The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat,
While the Owl had the dish as its share of the treat.
When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon,
Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon.
 

Charles II Silver Lace Back and Front Trefid Spoon
Thomas Allen, London, c1680-88
 with scrolling foliate decoration to the top and verso,
the verso terminal scratch-engraved ‘1688 over * M * S *’
 

King : Herald! Read the accusation!
The White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet - unrolled the parchment scroll - and read :
The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day :
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!
King (to the Jury) : Consider your verdict!

19th Century Silver Douter

S. Mordan & Company, London, 1899

The candle extinguisher of elongated trumpet form

Cheshire Cat : By-the-bye, what became of the baby?
Alice : It turned into a pig
Cheshire : I thought it would
Cheshire again : Did you say pig - - or fig?

Alice : Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
Cheshire : That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice : I don’t much care where...so long as I get SOMEWHERE.
Cheshire : Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.
 

The quotations above are taken primarily from the original text of  Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
However also included are a few irresistible phrasings from Tim Burton's screen version.

The illustrations are from John Tenniel's 1864-5 wood-block engravings.
 

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–1898)
(Hubert von Herkomer (1849–1914) / Christ Church, University of Oxford)

The author's name 'Lewis Carroll' is actually a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

The story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland arose July 4,1862. 

Dodgson, his friend reverend Canon Duckworth, and the sisters Alice, Lorina and Edith Liddell, were 

on one of their boat trips on the river Isis (a stretch of the Thames that flows through Oxford).

Alice grew restless and begged Dodgson for a story 'with lots of nonsense in it'.

Dodgson, as usual, invented the story as he was telling it.

And usually, these tales vanished in air as quickly as Dodgson had invented them.

However, Alice eventually begged him to write them down for her.

Originally hesitant, he eventually gave in to Alice’s pleas.

Dodgson sketched an initial outline during a train journey.

The book's first printing in 1865 by Clarendon Press, Oxford, numbering 2000, dissatisfied Dodgson.. 

Later that year, he chose printer John Clay, whose quality pleased both Dodgson and Tenniel.

. By 1885, 120,000 copies has been printed and sold.

And as the author is known to have said :

....."To all my friends, known and unknown, 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year'".

Lewis Carroll,  1871

And may it be filled with a Wonderland of Non-Sense!

Millicent Creech

Caroline Kelly

Keith Rainer

Click Below to View :

(Beware the Jabberwock my Son!)

Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass

(Whether Pigs Have Wings!)

The Walrus & The Carpenter

(...To keep the Menai's bridge from rust

By boiling it in wine.)

'Curiouser & Curiouser!'

Please click the above images or titles for more information and images.

901-761-1163 (gallery) / 901-827-4668 (cell)

581 S. PERKINS ROAD / LAURELWOOD COLLECTION / MEMPHIS, TN 38117

Hours : Wed.-Sat. 11-6, or by appointment

Complimentary Gift Wrapping

mfcreech@bellsouth.net  or  mfordcreech@gmail.com

www.mfordcreech.com

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Down The Rabbit Hole Christmas ; M. Ford Creech Antiques