Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

FROM VAN SANDWYK’S PERSONAL COLLECTION 

CARROLL, Lewis; Charles VAN SANDWYK [Illus.]

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 

London: The Folio Society, 2016

Folio, quarter vellum over red paper-covered boards with vellum tips, spine lettered typographically in gilt, upper board with the iconic image of the white rabbit and his pocket watch surrounded by a highly decorative border showing roses, crowns, hedgehogs, spider webs lettered ‘who are you?’ and more, printed in black, white, gold and metallic red; highly decorative endpapers showing vignettes from the book; pp. [vi], 5-160, [viii]; with decorative frontis showing a portrait of Alice as well as an additional 10 tipped-in plates in full colour, nine onlaid colour illustrations, and numerous others in black and white throughout, including full and double page, as well as decorative initials and borders in gold; a fine, unread copy, until recently kept unopened, contained in the original glassine wrapper, the custom-made red cloth slipcase with paper label to spine, the publisher’s brown paper wrapping and in the original publisher’s cardboard box, with printed label to one edge. 

Special, limited sesquincentenary edition, limited to one thousand copies each containing an original copperplate engraving signed and numbered by the artist in December 2015. This copy numbered ‘XI/XXX’, the artist’s own personal copy, with an additional manuscript note from van Sandwyk ascertaining the fact loosely tipped-in. 

A beautifully-produced edition of Carroll’s children’s classic, one of the best-known stories of the Victorian period. Inspired by a ‘golden afternoon’ boating on the river in Oxfordshire, in which Carroll passed the time telling stories to the daughters of his friend Henry Liddell (Alice, Lorina and Edith), the tale follows the titular character as she travels down a rabbit hole to a dream-like world, where she meets a hookah-smoking caterpillar, a grinning cheshire cat, a mad hatter and many other characters which have now been embedded in the consciousness of popular culture. The book has never been out of print, and has been translated into 174 languages worldwide.  

With the original first edition of 1865 featuring wood engravings by John Tenniel, this edition was published to celebrate 150 years since the original publication. Here, Van Sandwyk has taken great pains to preserve the integrity of the original Alice, whilst adding his own interpretations. Illustrations include the caterpillar puffing on a shisha pipe; frog footmen in curly judges wigs delivering letters from a royal mail parcel (hanging from a snail); a gryphon dozing under a tree with a book entitled ‘Croquet: The Queen’s Rules’ and a plate of Battenberg by his side, and of course the classic scenes of the Mad Hatter’s tea party, playing cards painting the roses red, and others. “This is Wonderland as it was meant to be seen”, the publishers write, “with eccentric charm and dreamlike detail”. 

A sumptuous publication, possibly the most beautiful edition of this work ever to be printed.