The Pottery Barn Family Arabian Stallion Lamp

Hmmmmm. Look what came across my Instagram feed! Twice. Thursday and Friday both.

That's a Breyer Family Arabian Stallion (FAS) that Pottery Barn is using.

Vintage Club Ali, one of the FASs in my collection.

Curious to learn more about this piece, I went to Pottery Barn's web site and easily found the lamp.

Pottery Barn wants $179 for it. That's a lot of money, especially for a copy that has lost much of the refinement of the original piece and looks rather clunky to me. 

The mane on the lamp horse has been switched to the near side of the piece.

It's on the off side for the real FAS.

There is some real irony at play here. Yes, it is clear that the lamp horse is a copy of Breyer's FAS.

My Breyer belly-band Appaloosa FAS.

But, Breyer did the same thing early in the company's history - they copied Hagen Renaker's Zara and Zilla (the mare and foal accompanying Amir) and then designed the stallion after Amir in the 1950s. Hagen Renaker filed a lawsuit against Breyer and won. (Breyer also copied Hartland's Western Horse.)

All that was over 70 years ago and a lot has changed since then. Pottery Barn is a large, well known company and I would think that it paid Breyer for the rights to use the FAS mold or a copy that is so obviously based on it.

If so, it would be fun if there were a Proud Arabian or Family Arabian Mare lamp that is offered, too. Or, to see if this is indeed an unauthorized copy of Breyer's FAS and if the lamp ends up being pulled from the market as a result.

Stay 'tooned, that's for sure!

Mystery - the Mystery Donkey

The donkey that I bought from Jean is clearly a knock-off. As soon as I touched him, I could tell that he was made of cheap, lightweight plastic - probably styrene.

The hooves were the second indicator that this was not a Breyer.

They were much longer and painted a very bright black.

The position Mystery is in is a mirror image of Breyer's donkey.

Here he is between two donkeys from my collection. Sizewise, he's bigger than either of them.

There is a manufacturer's mark on the right hind leg.

It was a bear to photograph but I can see a P in a diamond, and then MAR... on the first line, BON... on the next, and 669 on the last.

I did a little research and found a company in California called Diamond Injection Molds, but was denied access to the company's web site.

Breyer's donkey is a little quirky and I think having Mystery alongside the Breyer donkeys is fitting as he's quirky, too.

And cute.

There is no denying the cuteness factor on these donkeys!

Next up? Two more pieces from Jean, another one which was also a mystery.

Stay 'tooned!

Getting into the Spirit

When you are participating in an 18th century event, you need to look the part - especially if you are the event manager. So, why was my sister driving around the grounds of the Feast in a 21st century golf cart on Friday? That just wouldn't do.

So, in the spirit of sisterly love, I took matters into my own hands, just to help her out, of course.

I grabbed a Hong Kong knock off of the Hartland Clydesdale from the shelf in my sewing room, some packing tape from the Mercantile, and "hitched up" the horse to her golf cart.

That was much better! 

True, the grounds were not yet open and wouldn't be for another day (it was set-up day for the re-enactors), but still, having a horse drawn conveyance helped us all get into that 18th century spirit.