A cross stitch pattern by Barbara Ana Designs. The round pattern will fit in a 10 inch hoop. The text comes as a sort of conclusion in the lower part: "We are all mad here" Its carefully balanced range of subdued colors, and the style of the decorative motifs, are evocative of Victorian parlours of the time. While the pattern features some favorite motifs of Barbara Ana (padlock and key), the chart also includes many references to Alice in Wonderland, the clock, the cup of tea, the medecine bottle, the caterpillar. You'll notice the original price tag still on the hat bearing its price,10 shillings and 6 pennies. Like the original version, Barbara Ana's character is drinking a cup of tea wearing an oversize green hat. Here is her female version of the Mad Hatter, a bizarre person wearing a top hat whom Alice meets when she comes across the Mad tea party in Lewis' Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. You can trust cross stitch designer Barbara Ana to always come up with some new exciting idea. Moreover, mad at that time had more than a few meanings: "off the rocker" and "angry," but also "venomous," which suggests yet another twist in the game.CROSS STITCH PATTERN READY TO DOWNLOAD, DESIGNED BY Barbara Ana Designs
Those familiar with Alice will recall that the March Hare was the constant companion of the Mad Hatter. His Mad Hatter could therefore be a caricature of Theophilus Carter, a real person of his acquaintance, while his mad as a hatter could have been a twist on the pre-existing saying, mad as a March hare. He loved to twist words, and encoding double and triple meanings into his work was for him part of the fun.
It's also possible he had not previously encountered the saying and thus thought he had coined it himself.Ĭarroll's Alice is replete with word play. There also exists a possibility Carroll was unaware of the mercury connection to the existing saying. Carter was neither a hat maker nor had been exposed through his work to mercury fumes - if he had indeed been Carroll's inspiration for the "Mad Hatter" of Alice, it would have been because he was a somewhat nutty real-life character much given to the wearing of highly noticeable hats. The saying turns up in Thackeray's 1849 Pendennis and Thomas Chandler Haliburton's 1837 The Clockmaker.Ĭarroll's "hatter" might well have been modeled on Theophilus Carter, an eccentric furniture dealer who characteristically sported a top hat. Whatever the definitive origin of mad as a hatter, we know the term wasn't coined by Lewis Carroll in his 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Interestingly, these other phrases pull in different directions, with mad as a March hare signifying odd or eccentric behavior, while mad as a wet hen characterizing anger.) Phrases such as mad as a March hare, mad as a buck, mad as Maybutter, and mad as a wet hen are older than mad as a hatter, leaving open the conclusion that hatter is but a variation of an existing term.
Those so exposed would in time develop uncontrollable twitches and trembles, making them appear demented to the casual observer.Įven though there exists a strong tie between mercury poisoning and strange behavior in those long-ago hatters, it's still more than likely the term we now toss about so casually did Hat makers who day after day handled mercury-soaked fabric risked mercury poisoning, a condition that affects the nervous systems. The process required copious amounts of the element, a substance then not understood to be as dangerous as we now know it to be. Origins: In the 18th century, mercury salts were used to make felt for fancy hats. Claim: Working each day with mercury-soaked felt turned hat makers crazy, hence the phrase 'mad as a hatter.'
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