“The Queen’s Croquet-Ground”

When Lewis Carroll prepared to publish Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, he commissioned the renowned illustrator John Tenniel to provide the drawings. Tenniel’s designs—some of which were based on Carroll’s original, unpublished drawings—are now synonymous with the story. Following the book’s immediate success, collectors often asked Tenniel to draw copies of his published illustrations. In one of the fine examples shown here, the White Rabbit drops a fan, whereas Carroll’s original depicted a bouquet of flowers. Later in the story, Alice attempts to play croquet (introduced to England only a decade earlier), using a flamingo for a mallet and a hedgehog for a ball. Neither is keen to cooperate.