A unique celestial globe with the figures of the constellations replaced by John Tenniel's illustrations from the world of 'Alice in Wonderland'.

The Globe
The globe is an oversize "Prepublication proof 1/1" celestial globe that served as the model for Greaves & Thomas's 12 inch diameter globe published later the same year.

The underlying cartography is based on the celestial gores of Charles Copley, 1852 ('Alice' was published in 1865).

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense".

A celestial globe shows a reversed "outside-in" view of the sky from that witnessed on earth. The term "looking glass" may be used to refer to both a mirror and a telescope, both of which reverse the image of the object being viewed (the former through the vertical axis, the latter through the horizontal). Playing on this theme of reversed images, Bissell-Thomas's globe takes fictional cartography beyond "worldbuilding" to the stars with a unique view of the cosmos.

The link between the heavens and the characters in Dodgson's fantasy is never made directly in the books, but the interchangeable nature between "Dream" and "Reality" and "Sense" and "Nonsense" in the books lends itself well to the theme. "One of the central messages running through the Alice books, repeatedly restated, is that all life is but a dream; when one dreams in sleep, all the images and events that appear are created by the self, and in the same way, many curious meanings and analogies may present themselves in life, if only one allows oneself to be aware of them" (Bissell-Thomas).

Greaves & Thomas's correspondences between the individual characters in the books and the constellation are made clear in the accompanying booklet, which explains, amongst much else, the correspondence between the signs of the zodiac and the characters of Wonderland as follows:

The Zodiac
Aquarius, who holds a pot, from which water constantly flows = the Mad Hatter holding his teapot. It appears as though the Mad Hatter's teapot also never seems to stop flowing: there is always tea to be poured, since the guests repeatedly change seats and start again.
Pisces = Fish footmen. Astrologers associate Pisces as being the messenger, which is exactly the task undertaken by these footmen.
Aries = the sheep from the shop. Strictly speaking a ewe, but Alice can see neither horns nor genitals as they are covered by hat and coat.
Taurus = Mock Turtle. Victorians used veal to make Mock Turtle Soup.
Gemini = Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Signs point Alice towards Tweedledee's House and Tweedledum's House, although she never actu
ally sees it. It therefore remains for her an abstract concept like, of course, the "houses" of the Zodiac.
Cancer = Crab from Caucus race.
Leo = The Lion.
Virgo (the Virgin) = Who else but Alice?
Libra = The Kitng of Hearts. He is the judge in the court case and so symbolises the scales of justice.
Scorpio = The Lobster. The main visual difference between a lobster and a scorpion is the tail, and the scorpion's tail in Alice is conveniently obscured by shoes. Early depictions of Scorpio's region were of a "carapacious" (shelled) monster, i.e. not necessarily a scorpion, which gives further credence to the lobster.
Sagittarius = The White Knight. He is inseparable form his horse. On a chessboard, the knight symbolises both horse and rider. A knight has to be trained in all aspects of warfare; archery is one of these skills.
Capricorn = The goat in the railway carriage. Traditionally Capricorn has a fish's tail and no feet, and in the carriage one can see neither tail nor feet.