Those Lovely Early Palomino Hagen Renakers

If there is a color I can always recognize immediately and use to identify a piece, it is that lovely palomino the Hagen Renaker factory used in its earliest days. It can vary from fairly light to a darker, more carmel color, and there is something about it that screams, "Hagen Renaker!!" 

At least, it does so to me, and if I am unsure if a piece really is a Hagen Renaker, I almost always take a chance on it and buy it.

Currently Marilou Mol and Linda Shawhan are dispersing the collection of Carolyn Boydston and last week some of those old time palominos came up for auction. I was able to snag several of them.

The Comical Draft Horse with brown feet. Sculpted by Helen Perrin Farnlund and produced 1949 - 1951, he's older than me. (Although my skin is beginning to crackle like his, if you know what I mean.)

The bottoms of his hooves are odd. Clearly he was glued to a piece of cardboard at one time, but there seems to be another layer between that and the bottom of his hooves that is a lighter brown and feels like china, not cardboard.

You can see that extra layer more clearly on the hooves of the Draft Foal.

They, too, have cardboard on the bottoms, with a bigger brown layer that also clinks like china when I gently tap it. I might see if I can remove it, but for now it stays - I do not want to risk breaking pieces that have survived intact for 70+ years.

The Draft Foal was made 1949 - 1951 and sculpted by Helen Perrin Farnlund. He's not as crazed and he's very primitive looking, but I am glad to have him.

This is the Frisky Colt (left facing variation.) Tom Masterson sculpted this piece and it was released in 1951 and produced until 1953. (Still older than me!)

He has lots of crazing (that's remnants of Quake Hold on the back hooves.) 

I already had this piece in my collection; it came from Nancy Falzone's extensive HR mini collection a couple of years ago.

 It's lighter in color and has surprisingly little crazing, especially when compared to the other piece.

Boydston piece on the left, Falzone piece on the right.

I like the carmel palomino better than the lighter version, but you can see the shading better in this light piece than you can the other.

I found the underside of the hooves fascinating. The back hooves of the Boydston piece (left) has remnants of Quake Hold, the Falzone piece does not. But both pieces were painted by artists who added frogs!

The Boydston piece. Whoever painted it knew that frogs are triangular shaped.  (Sorry for the blurriness - my hands can be weak and I didn't want to drop the phone on the foal so I snapped fast.)

While the frogs on the Falzone piece look like half moons, not triangles.

There is one more interesting quirk about the Frisky Foal. There are two variations of the mold - left facing and right facing. (Screenshot from Hagen Renaker Museum.)

They almost look like two different sculpts to me and if I get some time, I'd like to research that further.

I received two other Hagen Renaker pieces from the auction with a third that's on the way. Look for more tomorrow.

Stay 'tooned!

New to Windsong: Chief of Fourmile

Since last fall, Marilou Mol and Linda Shawhan have been rehoming models and art from the late Linda Myron's collection. There were some lovely pieces, but I didn't bid on any models until this boy popped up the very last weekend of the dispersal.

Chief of Fourmile, a 1999 Commemorative Edition. Isn't he pretty?

Marilou and Linda both show chinas, and they packed him as though he were a china, too. (Thanks, ladies!)

He came with his original hang tag with information about him. (I hadn't realized that late in life he fell into bad hands and was rescued when he was emaciated and starving. Poor boy!)

Already I am fond of the little heart shaped spot on his off backside.

And his color is intriguing. I love the shoulder shading and the black spots underneath it.

His paint job is a little odd in another way.

The bottom of the hooves are black - did Breyer use black plastic or were the undersides of the hooves painted? 

There is some detritus sticking to them, too. I did the flashlight test to check the plastic and the light shone right through, so the plastic is white and that is black paint. (In other words, it's not a chalky or partial chalky or chalky plastic.)

Attached to his leg is a tag that I presume was made by Linda to keep track of the models in her collection.

I'll check with Marilou and Linda but will probably keep the tag on him regardless of who wrote it - it's part of his provenance.

Such a pretty color on an underused vintage mold. I am thrilled to be able to add him to my collection.