Review of Ashton Drake Alice in Wonderland Doll,Happy 163rd Birthday Alice Pleasance Liddell, and One Cool Cat

  I have to start off with a welcome to some new followers. Bambuc isn't exactly new, but I think I somehow managed to miss welcoming Bambuc when she joined. So, welcome Bambuc! You can view her doll blog HERE. For those of you who don't speak her language, she has a handy translator on her page. Our two newest followers are Freja, (She collects Liv dolls and you can see her blog HERE.) and Lisa from Once Upon a Doll Collection. Thanks for joining us!
  On my birthday Ken told me I had a gift coming. Well, it came a couple of days after my birthday, but I've been putting off showing it to you until the weather was right for the pictures I wanted to take. Today is going to be the day though,because today is the 163rd anniversary of the birth of Alice Pleasance Liddell, the girl Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland book was written for,and the doll is Ashton Drake's Alice in Wonderland.

The last page from Lewis Carroll's hand written original "Alice" book.That's Alice Liddell at the bottom.

    You may have read my Alice Week posts last May,(The Alice posts start HERE.) in which case you'll know that Lewis Carroll's Alice books are one of my favourite things. (Or should that be two of my favourite things?) I collect Alice things: different versions of the books, (With illustrations by various artists.), and Alice dolls. I also love the dolls of Dianna Effner. The Ashton Drake Alice is both: Alice, and a beautiful Dianna Effner sculpt.

Alice is 12" tall.

In fact, this doll was a 2011 Doll of the Year award winner.

She came in a shipper box, and this Ashton Drake box.

She was tied into her box with three white satiny ribbons.

But she was easily freed from her box by untying the ribbons. Then came the task of removing all those styrofoam sheets. Her accessories were in plastic, and her hair was in a hair net.
   She comes with her plush white rabbit...

His arms and legs are button jointed, so they can move.

He has one eye 'missing', as if he has been her favourite toy for quite a while.

...and this 'Drink Me' bottle.

Alice's mother obviously didn't teach her not to eat or drink stray things she found laying around! Sort of a bad example for kids these days. But then, maybe not. I mean, look what happens to Alice when she does partake of her finds.

NOT attractive. This makes Audrey Hepburn's neck look short.

A white rabbit is frequently made as Alice's accompanying doll. I always think Alice's cat Dinah would be the most obvious choice. 

Alice with Dinah at the beginning of Through the Looking Glass.Throughout both books Alice frequently mentions Dinah.

 Even a Cheshire Cat would be really nice.

Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”
The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”When I was in Cheshire I wanted to bring home a Cheshire Cat souvenir of some kind from there. The selection was pretty poor, so I didn't get a Cheshire Cat. I did buy my Complete Lewis Carroll book there though. I bet these days there are Cheshire Cat souvenirs galore there.

Alice's hands aren't made in a way that enables her to actually hold her 'Drink Me' bottle, which is  disappointing. She has to keep it in her pocket.

Her fingernails are painted.

She can also barely hold her white rabbit.

Her arms don't bend enough to hold the bunny tight, and her wrists can't bend enough to be of any help either.
  Alice has what Ashton Drake describes as "11 rotating joints'. These include her neck,shoulders, hips, knees,elbows, and wrists. The claim is that these ball joints allow her to be posed in "a variety of realsitic poses."

I was a bit disappointed by the limitations of her posing ability though.

She can sit down, and her knees do bend, allowing her to do a walking pose as long as she has some help standing up.

But her ankles don't bend.

She can barely put her hands behind her back. Alot of this look is achieved by camera angle.

On the plus side she has a realistic translucent skin tone...

...that Dianna Effner face sculpt...

...and great curly hair.

 She also has a beautiful dress...

With lots of nice lace detailing.

The dress and slip are one piece that just looks like two. The apron is a separate piece though. Both dress and apron snap in the back.

...bloomers that match her apron...

Darn! Who put that rabbit hole there?!

"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well."

...striped stockings and Mary Jane shoes.I'm afraid to try to 'unbutton' the shoe straps in case the button is just for show! There doesn't seem to actually be a button hole. I can't wait until I get my new glasses in a few weeks! As it is, I can't see up close when I'm doing things because I can't wear my up close glasses and still see to get around! I am surely bound for bifocalsville!

Nice, well made shoes. The stockings are thigh high and unfinished at the tops.

Alice can stand on her own on a nice level surface, something my yard is not. She needed some help out there.

Her legs can spread out to the side, which helps her stand.

She stands ok on my vanity, but not on the lumpy ground. Those are pear blossom petals on the ground here, by the way.

Her head can tilt to either side.

She can't tilt her head up or down very much though.

This looks like quite an upward tilt but some of it is camera angle, and some of it is done by leaning her whole body back on her hip joint.

See? Oh yeah, some of my amaryllis' are blooming.

And so are the pear blossoms. In fact, most of them have fallen already.

The lilacs are almost completely bloomed.

I have been sniffing them every time I go in and out of the house, as we have some right by the back door.
And we have these purple flowers...whatever they are. They grow on that viney ground cover plant.

And of course, the wild violets are all over the yard.

The Cheshire Cat tells Alice,"You see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.' In this picture, the cat looks pretty 'mad', either type.

I love Dianna Effner's doll faces.I think I would like Alice's upper lip to be a little wider, (horizontally that is.), but I still think she's beautiful. I love her dress and her cute shoes. The dress is very filmy, so it drapes realistically. I do wish she could get more posability out of those 11 joints. Just for your information this seems to be the same body used on Ashton Drakes' line of Dianna Effner sculpted Native American and "Cinderellas from Around the World" dolls. You can see those HERE. The Cinderellas use the same head sculpt as Alice,(And they're $20 cheaper than Alice!), but the Native American dolls more closely resemble the Little Darlings sculpts. (For the same price as Alice, $99.99.)To be fair, Cinderalla is described as being 'poseable', with no mention of the '11 rotating joints'. Her elbows seems to be bendable though, so who knows exactly how poseable she is. The Native American dolls are described as having 'rotating joints'. No mention of how many, although the dolls are supposed to have 'an incredible range of poses, allowing (them)  to convey traditional "dance" moves'.
   This Alice by Ashton Drake is alot more affordable than a Little Darling. She's still available on the Ashton Drake site. Ken actually got her elsewhere on line for slightly less than Ashton Drake's price. How do people do that?
  And here are some more pictures of Alice, because I like her.

   As for the "Cheshire Cat", I bought him on Ebay a few years ago.

Our cat, Mow, seems to have donated a hair of his own to this guy. That's it on the top of his head. Even cats have The One Hair.

He was hand made by an artist who usually did Monster High repaints. She said he was the first animal she had made, and would probably be the last. You see, he didn't sell the first time she listed him, and when I bought him, no one bid against me. I got him for something like $10.99, including shipping. I felt he deserved much more, so I didn't complain when she changed the shipping from 'Free' to $10 after I had bid. He was made from polymer clay, and then flocked.

He even has eyebrows!

She listed him as a 'pet for Barbie', but he's really a bit big for 1/6 scale. I loved the fact that his face was strangely human, but I suppose that would put a lot of people off.

 I wish I could remember the name of the artist. She did amazing Monster High repaints, and even made an OOAK 'Monster High pet'. Her photographs were amazing too.

   See you next time.

Doll-A-Day 124: Alice by Madame Alexander and Happy Birthday Alice

  I know I still haven't shown you the other cool thing I got at the show, but that will have to wait. I realized I have a theme for the coming week.
  There are a few things that are just 'MY THINGS'. Some of them you are surely already aware of if you read this blog! Amongst the ones you don't know about yet are the Titanic, Dickens "A Christmas Carol", and Lewis Carroll's Alice books.Today is the 162nd anniversary of the birth of Alice Pleasance Liddell, the little girl for whom the book was originally written.

Alice Pleasance Liddell, in a photograph by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll).

  Alice was born,as I said, on May 4th, 1852, in Westminster, England. Alice was the fourth child of ten. In 1856 Alice's father was appointed Dean of Christ Church College at Oxford. It was there that Alice met Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a professor of  Mathmatics at Oxford. Dodgson became a family friend.He was a quiet man,extremely shy, with a stutter, and was much more comfortable amongst children. Mr. Dodgson first befriended Alice's older brother Harry. When Harry went to school Mr. Dodgson spent more time with Alice and her older sister Ina. Although friendly with all the family, Alice was his favourite. This is a G-rated blog, so we won't go into the ponderings on Dodgson's intentions, although there are many,(without much to substantiate them, I might add.)
  In July of 1862 Mr. Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth took Alice and her sisters Ina,(Lorina), and Edith, for a rowing trip and picnic.

Alice, Ina, and Edith in a photo by Charles Dodgson.

It was during this outing that Alice asked Mr. Dodgson to tell them a story,as he often did.Mr. Dodgson did indeed tell a story.It was such a wonderful tale that Alice asked him to write it down for her.This he did, but took quite a while over it. He finally presented Alice with her gift in November of 1864, complete with illustrations he drew himself. The book was called  "Alice's Adventures Underground".

A page from the original hand written copy of Alice,now belonging to the British Library.The illustrations are by the author.

  Later Dodgson added the Mad Tea Party scene and the Cheshire Cat, and doubled the length of the original story.The book was published in 1865, with illustrations by Sir John Tenniel, as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", with Mr. Dodgson using the pen name Lewis Carroll. The second book, "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There", was published in 1871.
  There have been so many versions of the books printed since then. Many different illustrators have provided the pictures. Tenniel's are my favourites though. I love his grouchy looking Alice. The dresses Tenniel drew Alice in for both books have become the standard 'Alice' clothes, and are copied by just about all illustrators (or doll makers for that matter) who have followed. The real Alice actually looked nothing like Tenniel's or Carroll's illustrations.She had short, dark hair.

Alice passes through the looking glass, something I always wished I could do when I was a kid, in "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There".

  Alice grew up in Oxford. In 1872 Queen Victoria's son Prince Leopold, came to study at Oxford. Leopold became friends with Alice's family.It has been suggested ,that he and Alice fell in love, but his position prevented him from marrying a commoner.(It has also been suggested that he was more likely taken with Alice's sister Edith, who was two years younger than Alice and one year younger than Leopold.)In any case, Leopold named his first child Alice,Alice named her second son Leopold, and Leopold was the boy's Godfather.
  Alice married Reginald Hargreaves on September 15th,1880. They had three sons in all, two of whom were killed in World War 1.The youngest survived and had a family of his own, including a daughter. He was named Caryl, but Alice always denied his name had anything to do with Lewis Carroll.
   Reginald died in 1926 and Alice eventually found herself in need of funds for the upkeep of her home.She sold the original Alice book she had been given by Dodgson at a Sotheby's auction for 15,400 pounds. After passing through a few other owners the book was donated to the British Library, where it is today.
  In 1932 Alice came to America to accept an honorary degree from Columbia University. During the visit to America Alice met Peter Llewelyn-Davies, one of the boys who inspired J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan". Alice and Peter Pan together. These days they'd call that a photo opportunity, but there don't seem to be any photos from their meeting.
UPDATE; I recently tried again to find a photo of Peter and Alice together after rewatching "Finding Neverland". This time it was easy!So here is the picture...

Peter Llewelyn-Davies and Alice Hargreaves in 1932.

  Alice died in 1934, at the age of 82

Alice Hargreaves in 1932, during her visit to America.

 The poem below prefaces Alice in Wonderland. The three girls mentioned, although they have different names, are Alice, (She's Tertia.), and her sisters.

Alice, far left, with brother Harry, and her sisters Ina,left, and Edith, right.

 Apparently research has found that the day was not 'golden' and 'dreamy', but rather cool and rainy.

 All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretense
Our wanderings to guide.

Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour
Beneath such dreamy weather,
To beg a tale of breath too weak
To stir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?

Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict to begin it
In gentler tone Secunda hopes
"There will be nonsense in it!"
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast --
And half believe it true.

And ever, as the story drained
The wells of fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
;The rest next time' -- 'It is next time!'
The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! a childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a far-off land.

  Today's doll is a simple one. It's a Madame Alexander Alice doll that's sort of a glorified version of their McDonald's one. She's the same size too, about 5 inches tall.

This one has more colour and nicer clothes and hair than the McDonald's one.Her legs are molded in white vinyl.

 I have chosen to display her in her box, so she has never been taken out.I'm not sure her dress is removeable, since her back is against the box.

Join me tomorrow for another Alice doll.