iamsonotcool Vintage Cheshire Cat

For #Caturday ! Vintage Mischievous Cheshire Cat iamsonotcool earrings @ Time’s Tin Cup !

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional character from the novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It is one of the best-known works of Victorian literature. The Cheshire cat symbolizes a guiding light for Alice as it is he who guides her to the March Hare’s house and the mad tea party, which leads her to her destination in the garden. The cat is schizophrenic as he disappears and reappears, distorting reality around him.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was inspired by a journey Lewis Carroll took with his friends, Reverend Robinson Duckworth, Henry Liddell and their three young daughters up the River Thames in Oxfordshire. During this journey, Carroll created a story for the girls he called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. The girls were so delighted they requested he write the story down so they could forever preserve it.

View the full manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground:

The mischievous grinning Cheshire Cat has transcended the context of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to become enmeshed in popular culture as a symbol of enigmatic play and mischievousness.

The memoirs of Lewis Carroll suggests that his inspiration for the Cheshire Cat was attributed by the British Shorthair:

and the cat carving in St. Nicolas Church, Cranleigh, Surrey: