Sir Maximus Mouse

London: , 1973. The Cheese Tycoon At Home in the Cheddar Bank
Original Art From "The Butterfly Ball"

ALDRIDGE, Alan. Sir Maximus Mouse. Original Art, Plate No. 19 from The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast. [London], 1973. 25 x 19 1/4 inches (64 x 49 cm) matted and glassed in frame; oval image 18 x 12 1/2 inches (46 x 31.5 cm).

An original airbrushed acrylic painting illustrating a character from artist Alan Aldridge's modern children's classic, The Butterfly Ball and The Grasshopper's Feast, with verses by William Plomer and nature notes by Richard Fitter, originally published in London by Jonathan Cape, 1973. It is one of twenty-eight illustrations created for the book.

Accompanied by a first edition copy of the book.

Aldridge's fantastically detailed composition shows the dapper Sir Maximus Mouse - rose in buttonhole, pince-nez perched on his snout, and cigar alight - as he peruses The Financial Times in his plush City penthouse overlooking St. Paul's Cathedral. The newspaper headlines read like satirical punchlines:
"CHEESE PRICES CRASH"
"Mouse Traps Up 30%"
"British Mouse Assurance Scare"
"Cat Takeover"
A nod to both London's financial anxieties and the anthropomorphic logic of Aldridge's whimsical animal world, this image is one of the finest in the Butterfly Ball series - witty, visually layered, and resonant with socio-political undertones.

The composition is filled with rich period detail: rococo furnishings, Chinese porcelain, pink lilies, a Victorian grandfather clock, ticker tape spiraling onto the floor - all painted in Aldridge's unmistakable blend of fantasy realism and psychedelic surrealism. It is a masterclass in the airbrush technique that made him one of the defining graphic artists of the 1970s.

That huge new block, in EC4,
Of the Cheddar Bank they built last June
Has a secret fat, on the fourteenth floor,
For Sir Maximus Mouse, the Cheese Tycoon.

There he sits in his cozy room
With a ticker-tape, in view of St. Paul's
To watch how the market rises and falls.
His whiskers twitch at the hint of a broom,
His whiskers droop at the hint of a slump in his
Hundred-and-twenty super-companies.
As a cat will watch a mouse, he stares
At the ups and downs of shocks and shares,
A prince among mice and millionaires.

"Knock, knock," says the grandfather clock,
"Money's not all, money's not all -
He has quite forgotten the Butterfly Ball!"

Alan Aldridge (1938-2017). Once dubbed "Beardsley in blue jeans", Aldridge was an English artist, graphic designer and illustrator. He first worked as an illustrator at The Sunday Times Magazine. After executing some freelance book covers, he became the art director for Penguin Books. In 1968 he established his own graphic-design firm, INK, which created imagery for the Beatles and their Apple Corps. He was responsible for a great many album covers during the 1960s and 1970s, influencing the graphic style of the period. His work was characterized by flowing, cartoon-like designs with soft airbrushing.

He is possibly best known for the children's illustrated book, The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper Feast, a series of illustrations of anthropomorphic insects and other creatures, which he created in collaboration with William Plomer. It was based on William Roscoe's poem of the same name but was motivated by John Tenniel's assertion to Lewis Carroll it was impossible to draw a wasp in a wig. Aldridge also created the artwork for Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975).

Judi Dench and Michael Hordern narrate Sir Maximus Mouse....