Memorial Day & Old Glory

Happy Memorial Day! My Old Glory is out on the antique player piano for a little holiday decor, and since I hadn't shared him on the blog yet, today seemed the perfect day.

But first, a little music to celebrate the holiday.

I love Breyer's clearware, and Old Glory is a showstopper in my book.

The back of the box says that those stars and stripes were painted on,

 but the stars and stripes are actually stickers. (There are hobbyists who have peeled them off.)

There is a second error on the box, but you have to look closely to find it.

Despite what the label says, Old Glory is not a unicorn.

There was a bit of masking stuck on his tail but I was able to easily peel that off.

Another bit of masking was in the middle of his tail on his near side. That, too, peeled away.

Besides the tidbits of masking, there are a few flaws but I am not bothered by them.

He's a gorgeous piece, and I am really happy to have him.

Happy Memorial Day and bring on summer!

Good Advice Pays Off

Years ago, a hobby friend gave me some advice about scouring antique shops and thrift stores for pieces to add to my collection. She told me to always be sure to look on the bottom shelves. The middle shelves are where most people look; few look up or down.  When I did as she suggested recently, this is what I found.

Not one, but two bisque warmbloods!

They are by Goebel and were made in 1969. No chips, no breaks, and languishing on a bottom shelf among an assortment of old tools and junk. 

At only $20 each, I brought them home. I didn't plan to keep them; I just wanted to get them into the hands of collectors who would appreciate them. So, I posted their photos to a couple of online china groups on Facebook and offered them at cost plus shipping. They were sold in just a few of hours.

One is now in Kentucky with a long time hobby friend and the other went to a collector in North Carolina. I am especially glad that my friend got one of them. She had saved her babysitting money as a girl to buy this piece, and then in the late 1970s, someone broke into her storage unit and stole it. She was thrilled to have it again in her collection.

Looking down low at those bottom shelves was good advice!

A Lefton Cattery (And Then Some)

Remember that gasp I let out when I spied the Large Honora in a display case at an antique shop? 

I let out another one this past week when I went antiquing again and came across this sight!

Two three-tiered shelf units loaded with Persian and Siamese cats!

I started carefully examining them to see if any were Hagen Renaker cats.

There were lots of imitations (see that Sparkle imitation on the bottom right?)

but the majority were Leftons with a few other manufacturers sprinkled in.

Someone was just as avid a cat collector as many of those in the model horse hobby are.

It made me a little sad to see the collection on display and for sale. Personally, I hope my collection will be distributed among my family members first and then to friends and other hobbyists.

The cat collection was extensive and the pieces in excellent shape. Their former owner had taken good care of them.

There were no Hagen Renakers among the large pieces, 

but there was a glass display cabinet with minis in it where I spied a couple of pieces that I suspected were Hagen Renakers.

Although I am not too familiar with HR cats (or other animals, for that matter), I do know the look and feel of Hagen Renakers, and these six pieces all had that Hagen Renaker look about them. 

I was right. They aren't particularly old or valuable, but they will make nice prizes or gifts for friends.

I've thought a lot about that collection's former owner, wondering who she was and what the story is behind her lovely collection of cats. Was it hard for her to give them up? Did she wonder who would buy them and where they would end up?

I sure wish I could tell her that the pieces I bought from it are in good hands and will be taken care of and enjoyed.

Circus Time: Wrap Up

 "Really, the restriction of your collection to one subject seems to have resulted in the most amazingly unrestricted explorations imaginable!!  It's almost like magic to me, the way one theme expands to touch so many others."  Susan Bensema Young

When Sue said that to me a year and a half ago, I thought it was a really interesting thought. (If you know Sue, then you know she has a lot of really interesting thoughts.)

Sue and me in the tack room of the new barn in September, 2018.

I saved her comment and planned to use it "some day" when I was having trouble finding something to write about or when I was going to have a surgery and would need to prewrite some blog entries for when I was unable to write.

Sultanna, Abby, Diablo, and Sue in the old barn. Peppermint and carrot time!

My spinal fusion in April seemed like a good time to do this. I anticipated maybe 5-7 days of posts and then returning to writing about other things as I healed.

Hah! Talk about an underestimation! I started the series on April 22 and ended today on May 28. And while there were a few non-circus posts mixed in, I ended up writing 9 posts in April and 20 in May for a whopping 29 blog entries about my circus pony collection!

Honestly, I had absolutely no idea I had so many circus ponies and related items in my collection. After writing the Circus Time series, though, my circus collection is much better organized and I know exactly what I have. 

But there are still a few elusive circus ponies that I am actively looking for.

 The Melbaware Circus Horses. (Photo taken from Google Images.)

The Boehm Malvern Circus Horses. (Photo from Google Images.)

The Royal Worcester set that was sculpted by Doris Lindner around 1936. (Photo from Museum of Royal Worcester.)

The Cybis Equestrienne Extraordinaire (Cybis Archives)

and the Cybis Circus Horse Trio "Showtime" - this is the only known photo of the piece and it is believed than only a few pieces were ever produced. Enlarging the photo only makes it even blurrier. (Cybis Archives)

And sometime I'd really like to have the full size china Striking Arabian Circus Horse by Donna Chaney. (Photo from Google Images and attributed to Animal Artistry.)

But it's okay if I never find any of those pieces. I love what I already have in my collection, from the lovely Hagen Renakers to the big clunky Freeman Leidys, the circus dogs and seals, the bridle rosettes, and more.

As Sue so aptly pointed out, the restriction of my collection to one theme led to some really amazing explorations and tangents. I hope you were amazed - I sure was.

Rodeo Shirts: Done!

Time passes quickly when you are working under a deadline, and while I have had about six weeks since I offered to make new rodeo shorts for Pony Pal Cambria and Cowpoke Titan, I have needed that time to get their shirts completed and mailed in time for their first rodeo of the season.

I thought it would be fun to embroider western designs on the yokes of the shirts

and so I did a lot of experimenting with colors and motifs.

Because Mountain Mama Jessica chose a bandana fabric for Titan's yokes,

I ended up skipping the embroidery. Practice pieces just did not show well up against the background.

Cambria's shirt was different - try as I might, I could not find a bandana fabric that went well with the fuchsia gingham.

Embroidery-wise, that worked in my favor.

I used white for the yokes and fuchsia embroidery thread, and was pleased with the results.

Titan's shirt looked fine to me with no embroidery

or appliqués like I had done last year. (He got Star Wars; Cambria got a unicorn. )

Still, I decided to add a Batman appliqué for him knowing that that would make him smile.

I was really happy with how the shirts turned out. (Yes, I am hanging Cambria's rodeo shirt from a Melbaware drafter, but that piece is so heavy, I wasn't worried about it sliding off.)

It took almost a week to finish up the shirts, and then I got to the stage I had DREADED last year - adding the pearl snaps. But that had ended up being easier than I'd anticipated, so after putting the snaps off for a couple of hours, I came back to the sewing table, took a deep breath, and got started.

Success! And once again, very easy.

I think Cambria and Titan are going to like their shirts, and I plan to tuck a little surprise into the shirts' pockets for them - just for luck.

Stay 'tooned!

Circus Time: Comparing the Head Down Freeman Leidys

Teacher Daughter Lisa and I both taught in the same school for the 2013 - 2014 school year. (Was that ever fun!) One day we were standing together in the hallway while the kids were arriving for the day. A pair of identical twins who were in Lisa's class and ALWAYS dressed identically passed by us. As they went past, we overhead one say to her identical sister,

"Mrs. I., Miss I!! I can't ever tell them apart!"

Lisa and I looked at each other in surprise and then broke out laughing. I still tease her today that, despite 25 years age difference between us, to the twins we looked alike.

Lisa (far right) and me (next to her) at the staff Christmas party in 2013.

If those twins had looked a little closer, surely they would have seen "variations" between Lisa and me. And that's the way it is with model horses - looking closely can show you all kinds of interesting differences between models that initially look identical.

When I compared my newest head down Freeman Leidy to the one I already had, I found many of those differences. (In all photos of the two together, the new one is on the right.)

The first difference I noticed was the plumes.

The color order is different and the plume on the new pony is a little bit taller than the other.

Front hooves comparison. You can see the actual brush strokes on the hooves - the strokes are very uneven on the coronet band. The purple color on the pasterns and fetlocks vary too - blobby on the first; more thin and linear on the second.

Compare the position of the near hind hoof to the one on the newer pony.

It is set more fully on the ground than my first piece. That may be due to shrinkage during the firing process.

The bows and ribbons were a place where the decorating artists could have some fun. 

The new pony's ribbon on the first bow has been flipped and twisted a bit.

You can see other ribbon differences in this photo.

Eye comparison. I think those eyelashes are (as Lukie would say) adorable.

Hoof undersides on the first. That green is fabric chalk marking the hoof bottoms. I put it there to make sure I knew which one was which. It easily brushes off and isn't permanent.

Hoof undersides on the new piece. It's rougher in places than the first. It looks to me on both that the hooves had holes in the bottom that were later filled in during production. A quick (and careful) check of the head up ponies confirmed that they all had similar hoof bottoms.

The CO (Ceramics Original) mark is faint but present on the first piece.

Easily seen on the second.

Look at that all that beribboned, chonky goodness! Oh, how I love those Freeman Leidys! 

Next in the series? Some pieces not in my collection yet but that I am looking for.

Prepare to be amazed!