Alice in Wonderland,The Mad Hatter Hookah match work tin.

Mad Hatter matchstick work tin.

Gosh! this is one tin I would love to own. I just had to post this, and went down on my hands and knees to beg permission to publish the photo here. It's a truly great tin.

Alice in Wonderland was one of the books much loved by the Hippie generation of the late 60's and early part of the 70's.Drugs,sex,and rock and roll were as much a part of the Hippie scene as music, body painting,love ins and protest marches. They were free spirits and this is where the counterculture started which some of us still belong or at least wish we were apart of.

Here we have a tin looking at the drug aspect of the Alice in wonderland story.

I have no doubts in my mind that this tin is a true vintage item. Boy those late 60's and early 70's were heady times. Even if this tin turns out to be from as late as the 1980's it still has the gentle scented breeze of the era behind it. I wonder if the artist was a part of,or connected with the 60's/70's counter culture. Here we see the Mad Hatter sitting on top of a red and white spotted toadstool smoking a  Hookah pipe. White smoke billowing out from under his crooked top hat. The artist was proud enough to sign his or her work and rightly so as this is a fantastic tin.

As with all early tins it has been made using match sticks applied in a cross quarter pattern on the lid. The picture itself looks to be hand drawn in ink and diluted paint and would be sealed in under the varnish.

The artists name is G. Gamble. Did this artist produce any more tins?