Collections Within My Collection: Mortens Studio (Part 1)

In 2025 I began a blog series titled, "Collections within My Collection." I made a list of 33 sub collections and wrote about ten of those before I stopped in June. I meant to continue; I just never got back to the topic.

Well, today is the day the series returns and I am going to begin by sharing my Mortens Studio horses. 

First, a little about the studio.

Oscar Mortens, who was originally from Sweden and had an art studio in Chicago from 1931 to the 1950s. (One online source says the company began in the 1940s, but William Thomas, who was friends with Inge Thelin, whose husband, Gunnar, worker for Oscar Mortens, says the company began in 1931. Go here for that information.)

The pieces that were produced were figurines of plaster layered over a metal frame. They were beautiful but not durable - it is very difficult to find a Mortens Studio piece without some damage to its plaster outer coating. They are extremely fragile.

They aren't chinas but I have seen them (and shown them) a couple of times in the china division of a few shows. There really isn't a division for them unless it is simply one for Mortens or for collectibility.

In my collection are four Mortens Studio horses.

You can see four different scales in this photo. Sometimes the same horse (the grey, for example) was done in several scales. 

 

My bay Rearing Horse is flawless. He has no metal showing, no chips, cracks, or crazing.

He is the only Mortens Studio horse that I have seen without damage. As you might imagine, I treat him with a great deal of caution and do not handle him much.

Mortens are known for their "headlight" eyes; the sculptor put them close together on the foreheads of the horses instead of more on the sides where they should be. Many also have lip liner that gives them a bit of a cartoony smile.

 

The bottom of the hooves are painted in a thick grey paint (in this case, a little sloppily)

 and all four of mine have grey striped hooves.

All of mine also have the round copyright sticker, a surprise since stickers so often are removed by owners. The bay was my first Mortens Studio piece, found over two decades ago in a now defunct tiny antique shop in Pesotum, Illinois.

My smallest Mortens piece is the grey Mustang. (These are my names for them; I have not come across any mold names in my research.)

 You can see the lipliner that he sports (I think he's really cute)

 

and he also has the old green sticker that says. "Royal Design by Mortens Studio."

Under the belly is the copyright sticker. You can also see that thick grey paint on the bottom of his hooves.

 

It is hard to see in photographs, but this piece has a crack above his eyes. It's not crazing, it's a crack in the plaster.

The plaster has worn off his eartips, too, and the metal is beginning to peek out.

 

You can really see the metal on the Hackney's ears.

 

He has the striped hooves that the other three have.

 Sadly, this piece has some pretty advanced cracks on his off side.

 

A better look at the cracks and the ears.

There's also a crack on his belly to the left of the copyright sticker. (The white line.)

And he has an unusual round spot on his tail. It's a place where the paint and overglaze have flaked off, exposing the plaster underneath.

The black Thoroughbred was the hardest to photograph of them all as he was so shiny. The only actual damage in the above photo are the two tiny white spots on his barrel - the rest is all glare.

Striped hooves.

 The off side. Again, that is glare, not damage.

His eartips are another story, though. The metal is showing on both of them.

 

Headlight eyes.

The copyright sticker. (I keep wondering why they all still have those stickers. As old as they are, chances are good that they would've been removed long ago.)

So that's a look at the Mortens Studio horses that I have in my collection. I like Mortens Studio pieces a lot, but like most hobbyists,  I do not actively seek them out.  If I do find one, you can bet that I will snap it up and bring it home. They are lovely in their own way, and with the deterioration that most are undergoing, there may not be many around in a few years. 

Best to snag them and try to preserve them while they can still be found.

Tomorrow we will look at the Mortens dogs and cat in my collection.

Stay 'tooned!