Relaxing & Recharging

Second Post of the Day

When you walk into an antique shop and the very first thing you see is this,

you know it's going to be a good day. That is one of the nicest lots of Made in Japans I've seen in a long time.

I was sorely tempted. I used to have the orange rearing horse but lost it to breakage during childhood. The large bay foal is an unusual scale for a MIJ foal, and the palomino mare was a lovely color.

But, I am not adding to my MIJ collection any more, so I left them behind for another collector to find and love.

A few steps away and there was my second sighting of a HSO. Not something I needed, but it boded well for more finds as I shopped!

No surprise here - these metal clocks and their variations are very, very common. I think I find one every time I go antiquing.

Nothing I collect. (Is that pinto a Barbie horse?)

Whenever I find sculptures like this, high priced or not, I think of the beautiful pieces the artists in our hobby produce and realize just how talented they truly are. (And how lucky we are to have them.)

An odd jointed horse; again, one I've never seen before. (And not one of the Marx jointed horses - too small.)

Listed as a resin piece, but I think it was actually plastic. It did not feel like resin when I picked it up.

An unusual metal horse. It made me think of Dani Boiko and the lovely work she does with chain mail.

This Clydesdale almost came home with me. Look at his beautiful shading!

He was missing a bob and overpriced. Still, I felt badly leaving him behind.

I see a lot of these plastic Clydesdales in harness when I am out looking for HSOs. 

I like the lampshade but those overlong legs on the mare were a deal breaker for me.

Roemer and Pluto - vintage molds but not ones that I collect.

This Fostoria bookend set is pretty ubiquitous. I was given the set as a high school graduation gift and sometimes you can see mine in photos taken in my sewing room.

I don't need a horsey planter, but this MIJ one almost came home with me. When we were kids and collecting "glass horses," Leslie and I prized those who had what we called "arrowhead" stars.

However, the seller wanted $50 for this piece so it stayed on the shelf.

An intriguing MIJ piece - I've got several of these in my collection from childhood, but they are all charcoal colored. Another almost, but $26 to add to a collection I am no longer adding to? No.

A pieced from my childhood glass horse collection, and marked down from $25 to $10. Tempting but no.

A resin horse head bust. Again, I thought of our hobby artists and their beautiful work. This piece can't hold a candle to any of them.

By the time I was done wandering, I'd visited four shops. For whatever reason, lots of HSOs were available which always makes the shopping even more fun. And, I did come home with four new pieces to add to my own collection. All vintage and all Breyer.

Stay 'tooned!

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Sorting Out the Hobby Closet

I keep my hobby closet pretty orderly. The problem, though, is that so much is in there that if I want to get something, I have to move lots of things to get to it. And since I have been documenting my MIJ chinas who rarely see the light of day, that meant that I had to take 3/4 of the closet out to get to them. (Orderliness and efficiency have their place... until you need something. Sheesh!)

 The MIJs are in those two cardboard boxes on the top shelf way back in the far right corner of the closet.

In front of them was a lot of showing and sewing supplies. (Sewing is my other hobby. My horse room doubles as my sewing room.)

Nearly everything on the top shelf had to come down so I could maneuver the boxes that I wanted out of their corner and out of the closet.

And there are always distractions to slow me down!

Like this 1998 Made in Japan reference book! Since I was doing research on my MIJs, I simply had to stop and look through it.

This reference book which was tucked into the other's binder. I think it is a separate reference guide - if I remember right, you could buy different sections depending on your collecting interests. This section was about Marx, metals horses, clocks, and other more unusual horse collectibles.

I found my original hobby binder from 1971 when I formally joined the hobby (which was in its infancy.) That's when my 1960s play stable, Pawnee Stables, became my collecting stable, Windsong Stables. (Named for the sound of the wind in the cottonwoods on our property down by the Wabash River.)

Forty-seven years later, it is still the name of my stable.

I have it embroidered on my show tablecloth. (My colors changed from blue and yellow to orange about ten years ago.)

 In the binder were old records from photoshowing my collection in the 1970s. This is for Diamond Dindy, a Lefton foal that I still have (and love.)

Diamond Dindy was in those two boxes I pulled out. He is one of my earliest pieces in my collection, and was played with heavily (see that repaired leg and the chip on his head?)

Pace's Hi Hopes was a customized Hartland done by Sherri Cook in 1971 and was one of my best showers. I still have him and have shown him in vintage classes. Often he is the oldest custom at the show.

Pace's Hi Hopes at Hoosier Pony Live, April, 2016. Those are his old 1970s show photos - how far we have come in this hobby!

Among the distractions as I worked my way through the closet and boxes was finding the tiniest pieces in my collection.

A set of six horses that were produced for the railroading hobby. I have had these since the early 70s. (The Breyer is there for scale. And, because I am still so excited to have gotten him that I cannot bear to put him on the shelf with my other Semi-Rearing Mustangs!)

 Finally I got to the boxes of MIJs and took some photos of them and their labels and markings for documentation.

I love this old mini Lefton set. There's a standing foal that goes with it - I guess I'd better start checking eBay more frequently!

 This isn't from my childhood - I found it a couple of years ago on eBay and bid on it. (I have a weakness for the old charcoals and black and white horses, MIJs, Breyer, or otherwise.)

Pulling out those MIJs and going through their boxes took me two days. (Good thing we had a snow day Friday and I didn't have to teach.) It was so much fun to go back through some of my oldest hobby materials as well as look at some of my earliest horses in my collection.

Helping Document Hobby History, Part 3

(Continuing the series of pictures and information that I sent to Nancy Kelly last weekend.)

We did not have the internet back then, and long distance phone calls were expensive, so most hobby business was conducted through the mail. Some people began formalizing things (like Kathy Maestas' book) and Barry Mayse (not sure on the spelling of her last name) put together a reference on Japan chinas with help from fellow hobbyists. People sent her photos of their Japans with as much documentation as they had on them, and she compiled them into a reference book. The idea was to update it periodically, but I do not know if that happened.

The photos here are from the 1998 edition. This reference book really appealed to me as my first pieces in my collection were "glass horses" (as we called them) and it was fun being in touch with others who also loved them and might be able to shed light on what I had.