Cheshire Cat Backflow Incense Burner — 6 Inch Purple Striped Cat on a Tree Stump

Quick Specs

• Type: Backflow incense cone burner
• Size: 6 inches
• Figure: Purple and pink striped cat with a wide grin, on a tree stump
• Cone spot: Gold-ringed cap of a red-orange toadstool
• Details: Carved channel, round basin, playing cards, moss, and toadstools
• Includes: Starter backflow cones

A Grinning Striped Cat on a Stump Beside a Toadstool

The Cat lies across the top of the stump with his paws on its edge, grinning straight at you. His fur is sculpted in dense, brief strokes and striped in violet and hot pink from his ears to the long tail that curls up behind him. His eyes are yellow, his nose is red, and his teeth fill the whole width of the smile. Beside him a pale-stemmed toadstool with a red-orange cap carries a gold ring, and a yellow cone stands in the ring. A dark channel runs down the middle of the stump between two shoulders of rock, and it ends in a round basin at the base. Green moss grows on the rock, a second small toadstool stands at the right, and playing cards lean against the stone at both sides of the channel. Teal curls of vine frame the lower right corner, and glossy brown paint on the stump gives the rock a wet, mossy look. The whole composition leans toward the Cat, so the eye lands on his grin first and follows the channel down to the basin. At 6 inches, the whole scene reads at a glance from across a room.

Carroll’s Cat first turns up in Chapter VI, sitting on the bough of a tree a few yards from Alice. He only grins at her. In the same scene he tells her that everyone around there is mad, himself included, and he offers his proof: a dog growls when it is angry and wags its tail when it is pleased, while he growls when pleased and wags his tail when angry. Alice thinks he looks good-natured, but she notices that he has very long claws and a great many teeth, so she feels he ought to be treated with respect. He announces that she will see him at the Queen’s croquet game, and then he vanishes. Later, when Alice asks him to stop appearing and vanishing so suddenly, he fades slowly, beginning with the end of the tail and ending with the grin, which remains for some time after the rest of him has gone. Alice remarks that she has often seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat. The sculpture catches the first moment: the grin, the long tail, and the high perch. The stump stands in for the bough, and the grin, which outlasts everything else in the book, takes the center of the scene.

Practical Ritual Applications

At 6 inches, the burner fits on a bookshelf, a console, or a coffee table among books and candles. The grinning cat suits a reading nook, a shelf of Alice editions, or a desk where a lit cone adds a slow curtain of smoke down the stump. Choose a backflow cone, stand it in the gold ring on the toadstool, and give the smoke a still room. My backflow cone collection lists scents to try. As a gift it suits cat lovers and readers of Lewis Carroll, and it stays attractive between cones as a purple-and-brown painted sculpture with a smile that never leaves. A short stack of Alice paperbacks or a teacup beside it completes a small Wonderland corner.

How to Burn a Backflow Cone in Your Cheshire Cat Burner

The Tarot Fellow Standard

I stock this burner for the Cat himself. His grin, his stripes, and his tail make him recognizable at a glance, and the stump, the toadstool, and the playing cards place him in Wonderland. The burner takes a cone and a flame, and the starter cones that come with it let you light it the day it arrives, so it suits anyone trying backflow incense for the first time. For another gift that fits a curious shelf, browse my novelty and gift ideas collection, which carries pieces in the same playful spirit.

Frequently Asked Questions