Ooo! Shiny!!

Except... they're not. But they were made by the mid century ornament company, Shiny Brite.

These new pieces could be in several different collections within my collection:

~ circus ponies

~ flockies 

~ ornaments

~ models with molded on tack

Aren't they cute? I was actually doing research for another blog post, and these two popped up. They were being sold as a pair on eBay and I was the lucky winner.

Both are still in their original packages although one has a small tear in the plastic. At this point I have no plans to open either one of them. Shiny Brite ornaments are collectibles in and of themselves and can be valuable.

I did some looking and cannot find mention of flocked Shiny Brite ornaments. However, these have never been opened and still have their original cardboard closure identifying them as a product of Shiny Brite.

My search turned up these pieces on Etsy.

Using a flocked item as a stopper inside a bottle? Not unless you don't mind particles of flock in whatever was in the bottle!

I think I found this pair on Ruby Lane. They were priced at $24 for the pair. No manufacturer was listed but I don't think they were made by Shiny Brite.

Other than those, I have not found anything else that is comparable.

I am looking for more information on these as well as an identification guide. Any help is appreciated. TIA!

Stay 'tooned

Collections Within My Collection: Phony Ponies!

It's common knowledge that I am fond of circus ponies and horses, probably due to O'Boy's influence. Between the Hagen Renakers, Freeman Leidys, Metlox Poppytrails, and others, it is the largest collection within my collection. In fact, it is so large, I am breaking it into mini collections for the purposes of this blog series.

We are starting with what I call the "Phony Ponies." 

Hagen Renaker's circus ponies were so lovely that Shiken, a company in Japan that produced bone china figurines in the 1960s, copied the Head Up Pony. 

This one fooled me at first, but when I took a closer look, I noticed black hooves, not gold. The next photo shows two variations of the HR Head Ups. Can you see other differences between them and the Shiken?

The Shiken harness is brown, not gold, and the body color is a stark white, unlike the Hagen Renakers which are creamy colored due to the slip that was used in producing them.

Still it is a charming piece and I added him to my collection even though he was an imitation. But Shiken and another company, Kelvin, didn't stop with copying the Head Up circus pony. They created new pieces. (And I am so glad that they did.)

I am always delighted when I find one.

I have eleven of them - look at the variety of poses and sizes! Aren't they fun?

These four all bear Shiken stickers. Now, we all know that stickers can be switched around or removed altogether, but I feel confident that these pieces are by Shiken.

These two have stickers from Kelvin (sometimes called Kelvin Bradley.) Like the Shikens, they are made from bone china and are very white. The piece on the right is a copy of the HR Head Up pony, but is a bit larger in scale. They have pipe cleaner plumes and their harnesses have scalloping and are two different colors. I have never seen any others like these two.

These four do not have stickers but I believe them to be Shikens as their harnesses are the same as the other Shikens. The Head Up pony is the only one in my knock off collection that has no plume. Look at the one on the left - what a long plume and I love the energetic pose.

There is some size variation among the pieces that adds interest to them.

A little hard to tell, but the pony on the right is a bit bigger.

You can see the size difference here, too.

These Phony Ponies are some of my favorites, and not just in my collection of circus ponies but in my entire collection. I'd love to find more - I suspect there are other poses, too. 

Several years ago and after I was nearly fooled by the Head Up Shiken pony, I put together an entry for the Anything Goes class at a Great Lakes Congress show.

It did well for me, and was a lot of fun to assemble.

I've also used them in some doll stories that I wrote several years ago. 

These phony ponies make me smile every time I get them out. (I'm even smiling now as I type!)

Tomorrow we will look at another collection within my collection, some non-equine circus animals.

Stay 'tooned!

The Freeman Leidys are Here!

The Freeman Leidys are in the house! 

The story behind them is that they belonged to a couple who lived in California (home of many mid century California potteries) and they came into the possession of a granddaughter who lives in New Albany, Ohio. According to her, her grandmother treasured this set.

For whatever reason, the granddaughter put them up for sale. My friend Nancy Kelly saw the sales post and tagged me on social media, Christina Harrington offered to go pick them up them for me, and Ronda Mosley, Allison Pareis, and Stan Sollars each joined Christina in driving a shift across two states to get them here. Friends, I am so grateful for your help. Thank you so very much.

Yesterday I met Stan in Kokomo at a farm store for the final hand-off. 

The horsey hand-off was completed in a cold, pouring rain. But they are here and were worth getting wet for. 

At first I was leery about the tub. It looked awfully small for three Freeman Leidys and a circus wagon. Those horses are big and heavy. Had a second tub been left in someone's trunk by accident during all those hand-offs? A quick check showed that that wasn't the case - they were all inside.

Christina had checked them and felt they needed more bubble wrap before she passed them on. She tucked that in and around the pieces and I'm glad she did; without her bubble wrap, I think there might have been some breakage. 

The head up pink and blue pony seems to be the most common of the Freeman Leidy Circus Ponies. This is my third pink and blue one. 

She (they are all girls; look at those eyelashes and lipstick! LOL) has a broken ribbon but that's common and really doesn't bother me. (Those ribbons are hand rolled and shaped so they are different pony to pony.)

Its companion piece is the pink and blue head down pony. Oh, those eyelashes!

Aside from some photographs, I've never seen this piece in person.

Nor have I ever seen either of the blue and pink pair.

In my experience of collecting Freeman Leidys, the head down ponies in any color are much harder to find than their head up counterparts. So, as you might imagine, I am thrilled to have found not one, but two of them!

There are wagons to match each set of ponies. They are big and they are heavy. I already have the purple and green circus wagon and did not plan to get any more.

But, the pink and blue wagon came with this set, so now I have two.

The back of the wagon.

The other side (those cherubs sure look unhappy!)

One of the front wheels has a chip or large flake out of it. Not surprising; again, these are very fragile.

The front of the wagon where the horses would stand when lined up with the wagon.

The underside. "Co Freeman Leidy, Laguna Beach, Calif". (The "Co" is on the horses' undersides, too.)

There is more I will share tomorrow, including comparisons to the Freeman Leidy circus horses already in my collection.

Stay 'tooned!

More Pairs o' Ponies

It's no secret that I love to collect circus horses and ponies. This fondness for them harks back to stories from my childhood about O'Boy, the circus pony my grandfather surprised my dad with, bought straight from a circus that was traveling through town. 

Grandpa Martin doing a trick with O' Boy.

My dad's response when he saw his gift was, "Oh, boy!" and that became his name.

Manufacturers often produced circus ponies in pairs. Here are a few of them from my collection.

Breyer 

In 1996 Breyer released Kathleen Moody's "Circus Ponies in Costume" in porcelain. I bought my set as soon as I could and as you might imagine, they sold quickly and are now pretty pricey to buy from the secondary market.

(This photo is from my files but it is not one I took. If you know who  did, please let me know so I can credit them.)

Ten years later in 2006, Breyer released Applause and Encore at BreyerFest. Only 500 pairs were made, and they are highly sought after. I'd just had a major ankle surgery and was on crutches plus we were moving home to Indiana that summer, so I missed that BreyerFest. It took me several years, but I finally found this beautiful pair on the secondary market.

Hagen Renakers

Hagen Renaker's original circus ponies are older than me. 

This is the red dot at the bit version.

In the 1980s Hagen Renaker released them again, this time in four different colors (plus variations; look at those maroon harnesses.) I am in the process of finding the counterparts for these so they are all in pairs. (Wish me luck!) 

The large chestnut and white ponies I shared in the last two posts were sculpted and released in the 1980s. They were modeled after the original release of the mini black and white pair of the 1950s.

Freeman Leidy

Clunky and with long eyelashes, the Freeman Leidy circus horses are my favorites of all the circus ponies I own. They make me smile every time I look at them.

The Freeman Leidys are big. They're traditional sized and were made in the 1940s during the California pottery boom. 

There isn't a lot of information out there about them, but I've discovered by collecting them they came in pairs of pairs. This pair is the purple/green ponies. Those ribbons were hand formed and placed on each piece, so the variation among ribbons is really interesting. (So are those eyelashes and check out the pink lipstick these two sport!)

Then, each color pair has a reverse pair. This next photo is the reverse of the head up purple/green horse.

He is green/purple. He is also the only green one I've ever found. I'd been collecting Freeman Leidys for years and was he ever a surprise when I saw him come up for sale on social media!

The shaft of the head plume also varies - some are long, others are short.

I think the plume was added separately. It is an easy place for breakage.

And Freeman Leidys are difficult to repair as their pottery crumbles when they break.

Look at the variation in the mane and tail ribbons!

Miscellaneous Pairs

When I was a child, I had a rearing black and white china horse in my collection. He was my favorite, and naturally he was the leader of the carpet herd. I have had a fondness for the old back and white, heavy pottery (similar to those Freeman Leidys) ponies ever since.

This pair may or may not be supposed to be paired. I don't remember but I keep them as a pair. (Hard to believe that that tail on the smaller piece has never broken off!)

This last pair o' ponies is tucked away in a box and not accessible at the moment. I wish I had put something in this photo to show their scale, because they are tiny.

They are a heavy rubber (like the old Safari horses were) and about an inch tall. I have no idea who made them but I think the detail on them is remarkable considering their size and that they were probably made to be prizes or something that was very, very inexpensive to buy.

Tomorrow we will look again at those Freeman Leidys. There is a mystery about them that I am trying to unravel and I will share that then.

Stay 'tooned!

Metal Circus Set

Last month at the April Great Lakes Congress show, Shannon Rodgers gifted me with the NEATEST metal circus set. She'd sent me the horse on the left in February and had then found the rest of the set at the same shop a few weeks later.

I'd posted pictures of it on a metal horse collectors group, but no one had seen it before and could not give me any information about them.

Sam Cory, Liz's husband and metal miniature soldier collector, was at the April GLC show and he was able to give me a little information. While he had not seen these circus pieces, he saw similarities to soldier sets from the 1960s.

Sam told me that metal sets are usually sold unpainted and the buyer then paints them. As he examined the ringmasters, he pointed out that the arm of the one with the whip was articulated to go up and down. 

The right arm of the other ringmaster was also articulated but had been painted over so that it would not move.

See that gold horn or handle? That makes me think that this wasn't just a liberty horse, but it was a bareback rider's mount, too. (Which then makes me wonder if there is a rider for it floating around somewhere.)

This piece is missing a leg and a tail, but I don't care - I love it.

The new white horse is similar to the one Shannon gave me in February.

Someone on the metal horse group had suggested that my first piece was a custom and one of a kind, but I don't think that's true.

Here the two are together - the first is on the left and the newer one on the right.

And their flip sides. (The pieces are still in the same order.)

The black piece made it into my Anything Goes entry at the GLC show. 

Thank you again, Shannon. This circus set is becoming one of my favorites.