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1879 Christmas card envelope depicting Alice, the White King and his messenger1879
1879
About the Item
British, December 1879
After John Tenniel (1820-1914)
A philatelic cover depicting Alice, the White King and his messenger, with a ham sandwich
An adaption of the illustration to Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass
Ink on paper, the envelope stamped with a penny red and 1879 postmark
8 x 10.4 cm.; (within frame) 21.5 x 24.2 cm.
Provenance:
Francis Griffin, of Pell Wall Hall, and thence by descent;
Private Collection, United Kingdom.
Dated to December 1879, posted on Christmas Eve, this philatelic cover is intricately decorated with an adaptation of John Tenniel’s illustration for Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. The scene depicts the moment in which Haigha (the March Hare in the guise of the White King’s messenger) arrives to inform him that the Lion and the Unicorn are again fighting over his crown. The White King, unsettled by the manner of Haigha’s sudden arrival, proclaims: ‘“You alarm me! […] I feel faint – give me a ham sandwich!”’. Haigha produces a sliced sandwich from his drawstring bag and hands it to the King. This typically absurd moment is chosen for its postal resonance, and the sandwich is converted into an envelope addressed to Master Francis Griffin. The drawing is expanded from the rounded vignette of Tenniel’s composition to fit the outer bounds of the envelope.
The Alice stories came into being some time around 1862, expanded upon at the behest of Alice Liddell, and presented to her in manuscript form in Christmas 1864. Carroll originally intended to illustrate the work himself, though later enlisted Tenniel, who finalised the designs in pencil before transferring them to woodblock. Carroll’s ambitions to write a sequel came as early as 1866, and rested until 1869 when Tenniel was able to begin work on the illustrations. Through the Looking-Glass was published two years later, and Tenniel’s designs were again engraved by the prominent London wood engravers, The Brothers Dalziel. The laborious hatching of the present drawing bares the influence of the wood engraving process, and was likely reproduced direct from a copy of the book.
The envelope is addressed to Master Francis Griffin, of Pell Wall Hall, Market Drayton, Salop. The Francis Griffin in question is Francis William Latimer Griffin (1869-1949), the second son of Marten Harcourt Griffin JP (1836-1924). Drawn some eight years after the book’s publication, the envelope’s ten-year-old addressee was presumably fond of the Alice stories, and the labour invested in its creation would suggest the affections of a family member. The postmarks recto and verso denote that the letter was posted on Christmas Eve, and arrived at Market Drayton on the 26th. A potential author is Francis’ first cousin, Annie Sophie Cory, whom under the pseudonym Victoria Cross would enjoy success as a writer of provocative New Woman novels. The exactitude of the design suggest direct tracing, and the home-schooled Cory is known to have enjoyed illustration as a young woman.
The Pell Wall estate was designed by Sir John Soane for the iron merchant Purney Sillitoe, and was constructed between 1821-28 at a cost of £20,976 (Churchill, p. 75). The Hall was the last of Soane’s private house designs, of which he wrote: ‘In composing plans for this villa my best energies have been exerted, intending that, when it was completed my professional labours should cease’ (Soane, p. 43). Pell Wall was inherited by Marten Griffin in 1861, who set about remodelling the building and its interiors to accommodate a south wing. Marten’s marriage to Isabel Elizabeth Spencer – a great-granddaughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough and 3rd Duke of Grafton – produced eight children, including Francis. Educated at Charterhouse, Francis Griffin later served as a Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. Griffin’s grandson was the esteemed fighter pilot, John Francis Durham ‘Tim’ Elkington. Pell Wall Hall was sold in 1901 to the brewer James Munroe Walker, and was afterwards used as a theological college and later a boys’ boarding school.
I am grateful to the descendants of the Griffin family for their assistance in cataloguing the present work, and for kindly providing archaical information pertaining to the Griffin family.
Bibliography and further reading:
Burke, Sir Bernard, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, 13th edition. (London: The Burke Publishing Company, 1921)
Churchill, Penny, ‘The ongoing (sad) story of Pell Wall Hall’, Country Life, CCIII (44)
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (ed.), Armorial Families: A Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour, Showing which Arms in Use at the Moment are Borne by Legal Authority (Edinburg: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1899)
Soane, Sir John, Designs for Public and Private Buildings (London: Ridgeway, 1828)
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