And our last clue is one of the best known potions of all time, the "Drink Me" bottle as consumed by Alice in Wonderland herself. She finds the little bottle on a table, when she is stumped at how to enter a very tiny doorway, and when she does as the label requests she shrinks down to a size that allows her the access into the other world.
This bottle is the same shape as that drawn by John Tenniel for the first edition of the book of "Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland", published in 1865. However it was not this colour, for those illustrations were in black and white, and only coloured for a juvenile version called "The Nursery Alice", published four years after.
Now the odd thing about this bottle is that it is ridged, and that usually denotes danger, even poison, yet Alice drank it. Not a very sensible thing to put in a book for children, perhaps, with hindsight.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this set falls under section 2A of the Carreras issues, these being "Games and Playing Card issues". The header tells us that "leaflets or guides usually issued explaining rules" and that the cards were "all with rounded corners unless stated". In fact the only set without rounded corners is ours, though intriguingly there was a small sized rounded corner version issued as well, we featured it in a previous newsletter way back in September 2022. The set is catalogued as :
ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Nd. (48)
A. Small, with (a) rounded (b) square corners
B. Large
Whilst this description remains in the updated World Tobacco Issues Index, the header is altered and gives us the size "Small size 67-68 x 35-37, Medium 67-70 x 60, Large 76-78 x 61-62" as well as expanding the details of the leaflets to read "Paper instructions leaflets explaining rules issued, unless otherwise indicated".
There was a leaflet for this set, but I do not have one. If you do, and would like to scan it I am sure we will find a place to display it!