The Metlox Mystery - I Believe

First Post of the Day

So, did Metlox make a ballerina circus rider or not? Sally and I have been talking about this since the last blog post on the topic.

I ended that post pretty convinced that there is no Metlox ballerina. But Sally is far more knowledgable about Metlox than me, and she believes that Melox did indeed make a ballerina. With her permission, I post her thoughts here. (They have been edited a bit - she and I enjoy chatting about other things, too!)

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Hi, Lynn,

 Now to the Metlox ballerina - yes, the Metlox book makes no reference to it, but as with other specialty books, sometimes the author either accidentally leaves things out or just doesn't know about an item. 

But despite your very thorough research, I still think a Metlox ballerina exists - but is very, very rare. I have seen one twice - I saw one on a web page from a Metlox collector. The other was from the eBay auction which was in 2009 and had 16 bids and sold for $920. It had both stickers, Metlox and Poppytrail. The picture for the auction makes no reference to a horse. Maybe it's a shelf sitter as it is sitting on a small box.

In terms of the ballerina's left hand not touching the horse, that could have been the way someone sat the girl on the horse as the auction picture shows her touching the box - no gap.

The auction noted the ballerina was 7" tall, 3 1/2 " deep, and 3" wide. The auction says the tutu was white with some pink near the left arm, but the picture that is floating on the internet makes it look like it is light turquoise.

You have a lot of good points in your research, but for me, having seen the auction and the web page, I tend to think that it is out there. Maybe only in collectors' hands, but very, very few of them exist.

TTYL,

Sally

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The possible Metlox ballerina on one of the Metlox Circus Horses. This picture is from Sally and may be the one that was in the auction.

The file photo I have had in my collection for years. Is this from the eBay auction? I do not know.

Sally mentioned that one of the ballerinas she saw had both Metlox stickers.

One of them, the round Metlox sticker, looks like this and is on my palomino Circus Pony.

The triangular sticker with "Poppytrail" is on this white Metlox Circus Pony. The round Metlox sticker is also present - you can barely see the round sticker under its belly. (Not my photo; one I'd downloaded for my files  before I bought this piece for my collection.)

Having two stickers is not unusual for Metlox pieces, and the ballerina Sally saw in the auction had both. While stickers can help document a piece, they are not always a reliable piece of documentation. They can be transferred from one item to another, something that is known to have happened in the past.

Still, the Metlox and Poppytrail stickers are pretty solid and substantial; my guess is that if the ballerina that Sally saw had them, then there's a good chance that they are original to the piece.

As I read what Sally had to say, I thought back to a similar situation in the model horse world. Ever heard of the original Breyer Christmas decorators? For decades rumors have swirled around saying that, in the 1960s or so, red and green decorator models were briefly produced by Breyer. 

Simone Smiljanic, Ellen Hitchins, and Marney Walerious were the original "hobby mothers." Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s, they helped give the model horse hobby its earliest underpinnings. Simone was a good friend of mine and she was the source of those rumors.

Ellen Hitchins and Simone Smiljanic, November, 1971. (Taken by Nancy Kelly, the photo is in the collection of Liz Cory. Used with permission.)

A few years ago, the topic came up on social media and Simone was drawn into the discussion. Someone there was quite insistent that there was no proof of those 1960s decorators and that they were just a hobby rumor.

Simone responded quickly and adamantly. She wrote that she had been in the Breyer factory together with Ellen Hitchins and they both had seen those models on a shelf in the warehouse. She insisted that they did exist despite the lack of any photographic proof. They were real and she had seen them. 

Throughout her life, Simone's account of her visit to the factory and having seen those decorators never changed. And to this day, I believe her.

No photos of the 1960s red and green decorators have ever come to light. But, as Andrea Gurdon wrote in a blog post dated October 3, 2009, "Yet absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: all it takes is one photograph, one document, or one model to move something from the realm of imaginary."

That's a really good point. And in the case of the Metlox ballerina, we have an auction with multiple photos as evidence. Plus, I have a second photo of the piece, although it may be the same piece from the auction.

Just as I believed Simone in her lifelong assertation that the red and green Breyer decorators existed, I believe Sally that the Metlox ballerina is real.

Sally, I hope you find one for your collection. (One that's not $920!) What a find that will be. Send pictures when you do and we will all celebrate with you!

Don't forget the August give away! Comment to enter. Entries close Tuesday at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Two winners this month!

A New Variation Circus Pony!

I have seventeen of the Hagen Renaker Head Up and Head Down Circus Ponies so you wouldn't think I needed another, right? At least, not until I find a variation!

Thanks to blog reader Shannon C. who sent me a link to the sales page, this light blue harness variation is now in my collection.

That scalloping on the bridle is beautifully done!

I already had two of the Head Down Circus Ponies in blue harnesses, and I love their deep, electric blue color, but there was certainly room in my collection for the softer light blue version, too.

The one on the left is from Nancy Falzone so it is a keeper in the black hole part of my collection. I don't remember where I got the other dark blue one; I may sell it or I may send it out for repair.

The seller was someone I had not met before and who I now consider a friend, Sally H. from California. We did a lot of chatting back and forth during the transaction, sharing our love of the Hagen Renaker Circus Ponies and Metlox horses, buggies, and carriages.

Sally was kind enough to pop in something extra with my new circus pony. Just wait until you see it - I am so excited to have it!

I'll share that tomorrow so stay 'tooned!