ALICE IN WONDERLAND

A  few weeks ago I was in Scotland, actually in a castle near
Edinburgh for my daughter's wedding, but that story is material for a future blog! Sunday afternoon, the young people decided a trip to the cinema to see Alice in 3-D was in order…..their order. I went along of course. What one won’t do for one’s children! 

Many years ago, as a child, I received a book for Christmas of the original Alice in Wonderland which was beautifully bound and printed and illustrated with early drawings touched artfully with water color. I think I liked the book itself more than the story and it still has a special spot on the bookshelf among many other old, out of print and first editions provided by Cardew ancestors. As you may know, I spend any existing spare time at our home in Spain where most of these treasured volumes are shelved.

A few days ago, I read on AOL News that "ALICE is fatter than a March Hare" having topped 208.5 million dollars in the first 10 days! And what would Lewis Carroll think of that? Indeed what would he think of the whole project? The wicked and terrifying elements of the new Alice make the "off with their heads" Queen of Hearts look like Little Bo Peep. And Alice dressed up to battle the digitally enhanced dragon made me think of drawings of Joan of Arc dressed in armor prepared to wage war against the British.

I wonder, am I so old, have so many years passed that our dear book-loving, precocious Alice has evolved into a heroine requiring strength and bravery of such draconian proportions?

Never mind….it’s story time on my level. Arthur Cardew, dealer in antiques and fine art in late nineteenth century London would have been my grandfather by marriage. Among his family friends was a young Don, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, professor of mathematics at Oxford, who had an insatiable interest in photography long before it could have been considered an art form. He was especially talented at taking pictures of young girls from socially affluent families. Among this circle of friends was the lovely Alexandra Kitchin, who was photographed as a child by Dodgson and was married as a young woman to Arthur Cardew. Alexandra’s mother Maude Kitchin was Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria and the princess Alexandra, for whom our Alexandra was named, attended the glorious Kitchin-Cardew wedding which took place in Winchesteer Cathedral. Although now married, Alexandra remained forever ‘young Alice’ for Dodgson and he wrote all about her imagined adventures in Wonderland under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll!

Years later, when several glass photographic plates of Alexandra were discovered in the attic of a Cardew family member who had departed this world childless, there was great discussion about who would be the rightful owner of these early Alice photographs. They had great value as you can imagine. The problem was delegated to the family attorneys in true British fashion who decided that the only equitable solution was to auction the photographic plates at Sothebys, pay the legal fees (of course) and divide the remaining pounds sterling among the very numerous descendants of Alexandra. The happy ending of this story is that each inheritor received funds sufficient to purchase one case of very good French wine and I know well, one who did exactly that!