Second Post of the Day: Identified!

I now know what my Mystery horse  is - he is a Superior Plastic horse!

Thanks to Sande Schneider and the Facebook group Western Horse and Pony Lovers  for helping me figure it out. 

If you are interested about learning more about Superior Plastics and other Western Horse knock offs, hobbyist Kirsten Wellman has an excellent article about them in her blog, Model Horse Collectibility.

A New Mystery Horse

Every now and then, a friend who knows I am horsey will send me a text or message like this one that I got late last week.

After Karen sent me that message, I sent her photos of the black Western Horse and Black Western Pony pulled from the Identify Your Breyer site. 

Based on our message chain, I was expecting a black Breyer Western Pony.

What I got was this pretty boy, and he is most definitely not a Breyer Western Pony.

At first I thought he was made of styrene, but the more I handle him, the more I think it is another type of plastic. It's not quite light enough to be styrene and when I set him down on a table, he makes that gentle "thunk" sound that Breyers do.

The piece has what Nancy Atkinson Young called "scooper ears" in her notes for her books on Breyer Molds and Models.

The tack doesn't match Breyer, Ohio Plastics, or Superior, all of whom are known to have produced similar Western Horse models...

... although it does match Hartland's pretty well.

The saddle is missing its tapaderos and is made of a thinner plastic than the Breyer saddles are. But when I compared it to pictures of Hartland saddles, it seems to match. Could this be a Hartland piece?

I have one Hartland Western Horse, the Victor Over Clock (VOC). It's way up on the top of a shelf, but I am going to see if Craig won't help me get it down so I can compare the two. (I'm still under post op restrictions for lifting and climbing.)

I also have this Ohio Plastics horse and rider to compare the mystery horse to, and the two pieces are very different. My mystery horse is not an Ohio Plastic piece.

Clearly, I need to do some research - that's part of the fun of collecting. I have asked on a few Facebook sites to see if the folks there know what it is. And I may email Sande Schneider - her favorite mold is Breyer's Western Horse and she is a fount of knowledge.

In the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying having a mystery model on my hands. 

Dad's Slides: Two Early Breyers and an Earthquake

Just as I'd hoped, a slide of me with some of my earliest Breyers has been found. The box of slides this one came from is labeled 1968, so that would make make this my eleventh birthday. 

Hercules, the Clydesdale with gold bobs is on the left, and Torpedo, the Western Horse is on the right.

Both pieces are still with me and proudly displayed on my shelves.

Torpedo has an interesting story behind him. One day I was playing with my carpet herd, sitting on the floor next to their shelf. Torpedo was still on the shelf, and his reins were hanging down (like they are in the photo above.) 

Suddenly, those reins began swinging back and forth. I remember being very surprised - I had not been touching the shelf and no one else was in the room with me. What was going on? 

It was an earthquake! Centered in southeastern Illinois, it struck on Saturday, November 9, 1968 at 11:02 AM and measured 5.4 on the Richter scale. The red dot with the arrow is West Lafayette, where I lived then and where I live now.

We've had three more earthquakes that I have felt and can remember since then - 1987, 2008, and 2010. I was nowhere near Torpedo during those to check his reins and see if they were swinging, but I would imagine they were.

As I remember this story from my past with Torpedo, I look around at the other vintage models I own, models that I have found in antique shops, on eBay, and in other places. I wonder what stories they could tell?

More Pieces of the Puzzle

(Continuing the study of some mysterious Western Horses and their unusual "dry" deterioration.)

Sande suggested that I speak with Susan Tank as she was pretty sure that Susan had a piece just like ours, an early chalky blackfoot palomino Western Horse that was showing signs of crumbling and breaking up. Susan and I are friends on Facebook, so I sent her a message right away. And like Sande, Susan was gracious enough to chat with me and then gave permission to post her pictures here on the blog.

Susan's HOC (Horse Over Clock) is showing a similar deterioration to Sande's and mine.

 Note that it is where the legs come out of the body, again just like the other two.

Sadly, Susan discovered that the rest of the HOC was now showing deterioration as well,

  damage that had not been there when she'd last closely examined the HOC.

The same hard bumps, white substance, and then a surprise.

The HOC was also oozing! That is not what Sande's and mine are doing.

Susan has one hundred Western Horses or so, many which are clocks. She then decided to check another clock which was paired with a blackfoot chalky palomino. This one was a HBC. (Horse Beside Clock.)

 When I first took a look at the photos of the HBC, I thought it looked as though it was okay.

I saw no deterioration where the legs joined the body, white spots, or otherwise.

Sadly, though, close ups showed that this model, too, was affected.

And, it was beginning in the same place as mine, Sande's, and Susan's HOC.

The start of the deterioration process was also found on a front leg. Like the HOC, the HBC was oozing, too.

So, instead of solving the puzzle, I found more puzzle pieces that I cannot yet fit in. Why are Susan's models also oozing? Does it have anything to do with the fact that they are clock horses? But Sande's is a lamp horse and it's not oozing. Is it environment? None of the four models are packed away in boxes; all are on display in one way or another. And why just some of the chalky blackfoot palominos, not all?  Sande and Susan have large collections of Western Horses, and this has not happened to them. What is the difference?

Instead of coming up with answers, I now have more to think about.

A Changing Perspective

Well, you never know what you will find out when you talk to other model horse aficionados. After writing my post about the deteriorating Western Horse in my collection, Collector Sande Schneider and I had quite the e-conversaion!

With her permission, I share a part of that - she, too, has a Western Horse like mine. Hers is on a lamp while mine is free standing. Even more interesting, she knows of the existence of two others, both of which, like ours, are chalky palominos with black hooves and the high grommet snap saddle from the earliest days of production.

I'm sharing this photo with you of my WH on a lamp base that has the blistering and crumbling problem.  This is what it looked like when I first brought it home last summer. 

That white dust like substance surrounding the rear hooves is powder from the chalky plastic rubbing against itself that happened when I moved the legs into alignment again. 

This close up ↑ was done outside in natural lighting.  The other two photos were shot indoors in our rec room. 

Chunks of plastic from the one leg have since fallen away from the rest of the horse.  As I mentioned previously Zap-A-Gap glue would not adhere to those chunks so I could reassemble the leg.  I should probably try some Gorilla Glue but haven't done that yet. (Meanwhile the lamp continues to remain on that table in our rec room.)

The black hooves on that horse presumably date it to the very early 1950s, probably no later than 1952.  That style of scrolled metal lampbase was the type used by Marks Lamp Company of Chicago.

I also have this WH on a Marks Lamp Co base and it shows no sign of stress to its legs (yet).  But I believe it to be a later production item because it has gray hooves not black ones.  I also have a palomino Western Pony on a Marks Lamp Co metal base that has no visible problems with its legs.

So now we have two of these deteriorating horses, but unlike shrinkies and oozes, they are "dry" deteriorating - there is no oozing or wetness, and a white powder is shed as it falls apart.

There are two more of these like ours - black footed palomino Western Horses from the very early 1950s who are falling apart. Sande put me in touch with the owner of one of them, and I discovered a surprise. I am waiting for permission to post some of her pictures of her piece. 

Her photos only add to the mystery of what is happening to these model horses. And at this point, I am wondering if this is a new (to collectors) form of plastic break down.

Are You Sure? A Closer Look

I've known Sande Schneider for years (actually, nearly three decades). If there is someone I trust to give me accurate information on Breyers, it's Sande. And when it comes to Breyer's Western Horse, she has no equal - it's her favorite mold.

I was very interested in her comments on the blog entry about my shrinking Western Horse. She sent me several Facebook messages and emails, and with her permission, I post part of our discussion here.

Are you sure that your WH is actually a shrinky, though? If so, might it have caught the "virus" from another shrinky? Most shrinkies are from the same era and your WH is presumably too old to be from that era.

Her question made me stop and think. There is a "shrinky era" (late 1980s - early 1990s), but there have been pieces found from earlier years that are shrinking, too. And some collectors have noticed that the shrinking often begins where the legs come out from the body (like my guy.)

Nancy Young's book talks of shrinking in the section titled Variations of Size (p. 340) but she doesn't mention vinegar syndrome anywhere that I can find and discounts the idea of the actual plastic shrinking based on information provided her by Elaine Lindelef, who is a mechanical engineer as well as a collector. While Nancy's research is top notch, it is also twenty years old and new information has come to light since her last book was published.

So the take aways from this was 1) my guy did not really fit the shrinky era, 2) there are exceptions known, and 3) he matches other pieces which also began deteriorating where the legs attach to the body. And, he has not been near other shrinkies to have caught the virus while in my possession (I cannot speak for his time before I bought him.)

Sande continued. That said, I have a palomino WH on a lamp base that has blistering issues with its back legs. It is a chalky plastic one and glue doesn't seem to want to adhere enough to repair it. At least one leg has crumbled into pieces. I know of two other palomino Western Horses with the same blistering on their legs. One is on a clock and one is free standing. I honestly don't know what it is or its cause. One gal thinks it is from direct exposure to heat. I'm not convinced

Okay, mine is 1) palomino, 2) not on a lamp, 3) has blistering issues, 4) is chalky, and 5) has not begun crumbling but has cracks appearing that lead me to believe that he will.

So... is he a shrinky or not? Is this vinegar syndrome? Or is it something else?

I'm not sure, as I can see commonalities with other shrinkies, but differences, too. He does sound a lot like the three that Sande describes.

I'm going to keep thinking on this.

What a Shrinky! Poor Old Western Horse

How's this for a shrinky?

It's too bad because he is also a chalky and a very early version of the Western Horse with the O-link chain reins and high rivet snap girth.

Estimated date would be around 1951 - 1953, which makes this the earliest Breyer in my collection (as well as older than me. Haha!)

All four legs have a line of demarcation where they come out of the body and the shrinking begins. The legs are in bad shape, but above that line, the body is in good condition.

Some models with vinegar syndrome begin oozing, but I am not finding any evidence of that yet.

The hind legs are curving forward - he no longer can stand without support.

And the paint is flaking off in places.

There are two odd spots like this one, one on the inside off hind leg and the other on the outside near hind leg. You can also see bubbles popping up. They're hard, at least at this point in the deterioration process.

Some of the plastic has cracked - I could push just a bit of my fingernail into that crack.

And he just looks dirty as he flakes and peels.

I bought this piece at an antique shop about ten years ago. He was deteriorating then, and my thought was that I could save the saddle. Well, the tip of one tapadero broke off, so there went that idea. (That's what is taped to his underbelly - since he was falling apart, I was not worried about tape residue or damaging him. It was already far too late.)

Identify Your Breyer has an interesting article on Western Horse variations. Scroll down to the palominos and this piece is the same as the first guy shown. (That piece has a later version saddle.)

I am sad to see an oldie lost like this, but the process cannot be halted. So, I keep him and observe what is happening. Probably when he begins oozing is when I will chuck him into the trash, but in the meantime, he resides in a box in my closet, awaiting his fate.

Whoa!! What a Find!

No reins, so saddle, some large rubs... Wait! Look at those eyes! What is up with that??

Those are the thoughts that went through my mind as I spied this Western Horse while antiquing with Lisa Wednesday.

Not only are the eyes unpainted, but the bridle and breastcollar are, too!

And look at those bright white hind legs - that's unpainted plastic. Might this be a model made with chalky plastic?

What an odd piece! I began thinking that I might have found something special, so I snagged him and bought him. ($8.50!)

 A close up of the white hind legs.

 And the front ones.

The USA mark is in the right place for a Breyer Western Horse.

  Judging by the rounded conchos on the bridle, I knew it was not a Hartland.

 The undersides of the hooves are show that it is not a basecoat chalky.

 I decided to more closely examine the mane and tail.

 Parts of the tail...

... and mane seem unpainted.

Chalky plastic? Factory reject that escaped? Unfinished piece sold legitimately through Breyer's parking lot sales? I don't know. But I am going to check with Western Horse guru (both Breyer and Hartland) Sande Schneider as well as the folks on the Facebook Chalky page and see what their thoughts are.

Regardless, I have found something unusual, and am pretty excited about that!