Exploring Wonderland: The Cheshire Cat

Of all the mysterious, larger-than-life characters that Alice encounters on her adventures in Wonderland, it’s perhaps only the famously grinning Cheshire Cat who actually takes the time to listen. 

Profound yet excruciatingly vague, the illusive feline offers plenty of guidance to young Alice…the challenge is often finding a way to pick through the riddles and cryptic deliveries of wisdom.

“Haste makes waste, so I rarely hurry. But if a ferret were about to dart up my dress, I’d run.”

Indeed, it might be said that the Cheshire Cat is one of the few Wonderland inhabitants that Alice enjoys conversing with—even introducing him as a friend on her first meeting with the Queen of Hearts—and, underneath all the seemingly nonsensical ponderings, there lurks great insight. Who could argue with the watertight logic that, if he’s mad, then quite likely so is everybody else…

First encounters...

Alice first discovers the Cheshire Cat curled up in the Duchess’s kitchen—then, a little while later, he’s found perched on the bough of a tree; slowly vanishing, leaving behind nothing but his unmistakable broad grin, before reappearing again with yet more existential musings that Alice does her best to untangle. 

“The only things in the kitchen that did not sneeze, were the cook, and a large cat which was sitting on the hearth and grinning from ear to ear.”

A garden transformed

A philosopher, a helpful guide, a self-confessed absurdist, Lewis Carroll’s unforgettable four-legged creation is a source of great inspiration for our busy little workshop here at Songbird’s Nest. Our beautifully handmade Cheshire Cat Face sculpture—who looks just as at home emerging from the garden plant life as he does playfully benched on a bookshelf next to your favourite novel—can be a glorious way to inject a sense of Wonderland magic into your home; bringing to life those classic chapters and John Tenniel’s wonderful illustrations from the original tale. 

But your story remains unfinished, dear reader! Why not get in touch and see if we can help you compose the perfect ending.