More Finds!

 The Large Honora was not the only find I had the other day. This palomino Hagen Renaker Miss Pepper may not be quite as spectacular as the Large Honora, but she is still an excellent piece to find and bring home.

The photos don't show her detail very well, but she has beautiful coloring and shading.

She also has her gold and black football shaped name sticker on her back.

How often do you find Hagen Renakers with the early blue and silver Monrovia sticker?

I flipped the photo to show the sticker better. This sticker was only used on Designer Workshop pieces from 1957 - 1964.

I spied this group of cocker spaniels in a glass case full of miniatures elsewhere in the antique shop. They sure had that Hagen "Renakerish" look about them. 

Since the vendor only wanted $7 for the set of four, I took a chance on them. It turned out that they were very early Hagen Renakers.

By using Ed Alcorn's Hagen Renaker Museum site, Liz Cory helped me identify them. (Screenshot from the Hagen Renaker On-Line Museum.)

One of the puppies even has H-R stamped under it - something the factory did occasionally according to Gayle Roller's book. (Sorry for the lousy photo - that puppy is so small, and the stamp even smaller, that I could not get it in focus.)

I picked up two Nancy Drew books that Teacher Daughter Lisa had been looking for to add to her collection.

And one for me - the reason is obvious, right?!

A vintage, first printing Glen Balch book from 1959 to add to my collection of vintage horse books.

Our first dog as a married couple was an English Springer Spaniel named Duffy. We had him for 15 years and he was a wonderful family dog.

Duffy near the end of his life in 1997.

So this Enesco black and white Springer Spaniel came home with me as a result.

Even though he had been used as a souvenir for Cave City, Kentucky. (I wonder if I can get that paint off?)

Is it just me, or does this dog look like Falkor from the film, The Never Ending Story?

It's a Goebel piece, and even though the head looks too large for its body,

I brought it home to add to my (growing) collection of dogs.

Not horsey, but I bought this Indianapolis Motor Speedway hat for Lisa. She is heading to the time trials down in Indy this Saturday.

Finally, I brought home this old Napcoware planter. I loved the soft coloring and the eye detail. (Those are drops of water on her face - she'd been used as a planter and I'd been cleaning the dirt out of her when I snapped the photo.)

My sister, Leslie, and I used to call these blazes "arrowhead blazes." You can find them on many of the old Japan pieces.

How many times do we collectors go into a shop hoping to find some good pieces for our collection? And how many times do we walk out empty handed and maybe even a little frustrated? 

It only takes a day like the one I just had to keep us looking.

A Spectacular Find

Yesterday I had an appointment in Indianapolis, and when I finished, I stopped at an antique shop to poke around, just for fun. I wasn't really expecting to find much if anything. And then...

I came around a corner and stopped dead in my tracks, letting out an audible gasp at what was on display in a vendor's case. Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! OH! MY! GOSH!

A Hagen Renaker Large Honora along with a Miss Pepper!  Right in front of my eyes! I leaned in closer to check the other four pieces - all were Lefton copies. Nice, but not Hagen Renaker Designer Workshop pieces like the other two. Even better, all items in the booth were on sale for 20% off! 

I snapped those two Hagen Renakers up and had them in the car as soon as I could pay for them. I felt shaky as I drove home, marveling at my unbelievable luck in finding such nice pieces.

The Honora is a Monrovia era piece and was made 1958 - 1961. 

She has the gold and black football shaped name sticker that was used about 1959 - 1963.

Her eyes are beautifully colored with white, brown, and black, and I especially like the soft mint color in her braids.

Such a beautiful, beautiful piece. No chips, breaks, or flakes on her.

I have been scouring antique shops, thrift stores, and flea markets for decades and I've found a lot of things, some of which have been good, while a few have been really good. But only two other finds in all that time have been spectacular like this one.

I'll write about the Miss Pepper and a couple of other things that accompanied Honora home with me next. (And yes, there are still some Circus Time series posts to come, too!)