Circus Time: Shiken Circus Animals

Shiken didn't just do an assortment of some of the cutest circus ponies ever, they also made some circus animals, too! And at least one of them is a Hagen Renaker imitation.

Look familiar? 

He is a lot bigger than the Hagen Renaker Begging Dog, but other than that, they are very, very similar.

He has a Shiken Bone China sticker and since he is made of bone china, he is whiter than the Hagen Renaker dog.

He also has a stamp underneath - it looks like the letter R inside a circle to me. I'm not sure how that relates to Shiken; maybe it indicates who painted it?

Shiken made pedestals to go with their performing animals. I don't know if the green one was intended for the dog or not, but they did come together when I bought them from another collector.

There is also a circus monkey by Shiken. Truth be told, I dislike monkeys, and I only keep this one because it is circus related and the only one like it that I have ever seen.

This one also came with a Shiken pedestal in blue with a big yellow spot.

 A Shiken sticker is on the back of the monkey

and it has the same stamp on the base that the dog has.

The final piece in the trio is a seal who is standing on its back flippers while balancing a ball on its (nonexistent) nose.

It came with a black pedestal that has a big white spot, although when I took these pictures I put the seal on the green one by mistake.

There is a Shiken sticker on the seal's side and the stamp underneath.

Hagen Renaker made a circus seal mama and baby set in the 1950s. Ball colors varied per piece and came in gold, red, yellow, and blue. (Photo from Google Images and attributed to hagenrenakerhorses.com.)

I haven't seen any blatant copies of the seals, but I have come across two different sets of performing seals that may have been influenced by the Hagen Renaker pieces.

This group of three seals has no stickers or maker's marks on them. Since their balls are painted in a different color scheme than the Shiken seal's ball, I don't think they are by Shiken.

Although this one has a nonexistent nose like the Shiken seal's!

I think they are really cute but see no clue as to the manufacturer. 

Are they, like the Shiken pieces, copies or even an example of another company taking Hagen Renaker's idea and running with it?

A set is currently on Etsy and has a sticker, but that's a souvenir sticker from Sea World, not a manufacturer's sticker.

Copies or the real deal, they're all fun to play with and set up scenes for photo showing.

I plan to continue to research the Shiken company. A Google search will bring up a lot of Shiken china animals, many in groups of three, but I cannot find any information about the company that made all these delightful pieces. (Please contact me at horsiemama8@gmail.com if you can share any information with me - I'd appreciate it.)

Coming next? The absolute teeniest, tiniest circus horse in my collection.

Prepare to be amazed!

Circus Time: the Hagen Renaker Circus Animals

In the 1950s, Hagen Renaker released some animals to go along with their circus ponies. In the third edition of Gayle Roller's book, Hagen Renaker, she states that these pieces were "part of the 1955 Circus Set." (p. 265.) 

I don't have them all, but I am lucky enough to have many of them.

The Seated Circus Dog was produced 1955 - 1956 and came in two colors. The Begging Circus Dog is the red dot collar version and was also made 1955 - 1956. 

He is glued onto a circus pedestal, but I bought him second hand and do not know if he came out of the factory that way or if someone who bought him did the gluing. My guess is that the factory did it (much the same as they did with Performing Misty and her stool in 1993.)

The circus pedestal was also released 1955 - 1956. (And later again in 1969.) The early pedestal came in blue, dark yellow, or red and all had gold trim. I am still looking for the red one, but any of the pedestals are very difficult to find. I don't have high hopes that I will ever find it. 

I have put the Seated Dog on the yellow pedestal for this picture but I would never leave him there - too much risk that the dog would fall off and be damaged.

These performing elephants were not part of the 1950s release. They came in the late 1980s. I find that interesting since they were released after Hagen Renaker stopped the second production of the circus ponies (1980 - 1983.) I would think they'd release them all together.

The Head Down Elephant was made 1987 - 1989, the Seated Elephant from 1987 - 2000, and the Standing Elephant 1987 - 1997. 

The research materials I have list the Standing Elephant's color as grey, but one of mine is clearly brown.

The wrinkles and body detail are much better on the brown one, too.  I am still trying to figure out if I have an oddity or if the piece was actually produced in brown and perhaps my book is in error.

These two baby elephants aren't really part of the official Hagen Renaker Circus Collection, but I include them in circus animal collection anyway. On the left is a very, very old Elephant Baby with pink ears, cartoon eyes, and in matte grey. This color (grey) is not listed in my book, so this is another piece I am researching. The smaller piece is the Indian Elephant Baby in glossy brown. The glossy version was only produced in 1976.  

Mama and Baby Camel with fez hats were included in the 1950s Circus Collection and produced only in 1956. The camels were produced in other years but without  hats. 

I'd like to know more about Hagen Renaker's Circus Collection - the pieces are not in scale with each other by any means. Why was that? I can think off a couple reasons, but sixty plus years have passed since the collection was released and most of those involved with its production are no longer with us to ask.

Having said that, they make me smile and are much appreciated pieces in my collection.

I'm sure you would not be surprised to learn that, just as there are phony ponies, there are some imitations of these pieces as well. And, I have a few of them to show you. 

Prepare to be amazed!

They're Ba-ack!!

I went out this afternoon to feed and check the horses, wondering what I would find after yesterday's game of "pasture roulette."

Sure enough, Hokey and Diablo were back in the west pasture again! But Sultana was where she belonged, thank goodness. I think I know how the chain on the gate broke yesterday - she rammed the gate hard enough to do so. I saw her run into it today. It happened shortly after all the horses' heads snapped up and every one of them froze.

Sultana and Trouble

I suddenly heard a tremendous crackling sound in the underbrush north of the pasture and along the grain elevator property.  At that, all the horses bolted and galloped around in a frenzy, including Tanna who rushed the gate and rammed into it.

Out of the underbrush emerged one of the largest dogs I have ever seen, and it was loose.

His head was massive, and I felt uneasy and afraid myself. The dog pushed through the brush along the fencerow, making more noise and causing continued chaos among the horses. As the dog got closer, he paused, and eyed me for what seemed like an eternity. I turned and quickly hustled toward the safety of the barn.

A man at the grain elevator realized the dog was bothering the horses and called him to heel, then shouted an apology to me across the field.

While I am not happy to have a dog bothering the horses, especially one that large, at least now I have an idea of how Tanna got in with the other horses yesterday.

Now, if I could just figure out Diablo and Hokey's trick for getting into the west pasture...

A Big Annoyance in a Small Body

Owning a rescue horse means you never got the chance to talk to the previous owner of your animal and find out her history. And it can be a little dicey at times, wondering how your horse might react in certain situations. After all, she's a rescue, so she has been neglected or abused and sometimes both. Who knows what might trigger a reaction? It's very possible that you might unwittingly do something she relates to pain or fear and then have her react to what you have done.

Tonight Abby had an experience that was very revealing to me, and she did it without saying a word. (Hm, I guess I should say "a whinny.")

Tim's daughter, Melanie, and her family are moving into the house on the property. Melanie has a little chihuahua named Oscar. Oscar is young and very inexperienced and impetuous. Oscar has a grandiose sense of self-importance and thinks the world is his and that he is allowing you to exist.

I was filling the water trough tonight and chatting with the herd when I heard a high-pitched yapping. I turned, and Oscar was making a beeline for me, furious that I was on "his" land. Tim called him off, but I truly do think he might have nipped my ankles had he not done so.

No longer able to harass me, Oscar turned his attention to the horses. He went tearing into the pasture, barking madly and rushing at the horses, Abby included. I held my breath, wondering how she would react.

She didn't even cock an ear. He darted up to her face and then backed off a couple of times and she calmly continued grazing. She paid him no more notice than she might a butterfly fluttering across the pasture; impressive considering the commotion he was raising and how he was rushing at her again and again.

I was very surprised at her lack of reaction. It tells me that she has had experiences either with small, annoying dogs or in places where there is a lot going on and has learned to ignore the distractions.

Unable to get a rise out of Abby, Oscar turned his attention to Trouble and Hokey. Big mistake. While they weren't afraid of the dog, they did not have any patience with him, either, and both of them expressed their displeasure by stamping at him. Hokey even chased after him. (At this point, I can't say I blame him!)

Oscar may have to learn the hard way that horses are not to be trifled with, and that he is on THEIR territory, not vice versa. I just hope he doesn't get hurt if it happens.

(Reminds me a bit of the time I was riding on Division Road on Cee back in the fall of 1975. A car passed us, then turned around and came towards us again. I thought, "Uh, oh, this isn't good." When the driver came abreast of us, he floored the accelerator, squealing the tires and spraying gravel. Cee twitched an ear, and that was it!)