Hand Painted Mane!

When I pulled out my bay Grazing Mare to photograph for yesterday's post, I noticed something that I had not seen before. Sharp-eyed blog reader Adah R. saw the same thing.

In the blog comments, Adah asked, "Is that a hand painted mane on the grazing mare?"

It sure is! This model was part of my sister Leslie's carpet herd and she gave it to me when she stopped collecting. I only pull it out when I dust, and I'd never really taken a close look at it. (I have given it a kiss on the nose, though. All carpet herd pieces get that!)

Hand painted manes were done on the earliest iterations of certain molds.

My buckskin Indian Pony has them. (Go here to read a blog article about her hand painted mane.)

Both my red eyed and black eyed versions 

of the Semi-Rearing Mustang have them as well.

More hand painted mane tendrils on the Grazing Mare's near side mane.

This piece was first produced in in in 1965 and my model is an early one with no USA stamp.

Finding that the Grazing mare had hand painted mane tendrils had me going through my collection and looking at models that have been in my collection forever and not gotten a close examination in years.

I was surprised at what I found.

Stay 'tooned!