Heads Down!

My most favorite Freeman Leidy is this Head Down Circus Horse in purple and green.

Her name is Violet

and she is NAN qualified and has several collectibility championships to her name.

But that isn't why I love her - she just makes me smile. I don't take her out much due to her fragility, but she may come with me to Indy Blooms next month.

I actually have two in this color (Violet is on the right).

Check out the different lengths of their plumes. Were Violet's tag to come off, I could still tell which one was her!

The other one has purple shading that comes higher on her shoulders, too.

My new pink and blue Head Down compared to Violet. Definitely a shorter plume on it.

A big surprise to me was their near hind hooves.

The pink and blue's hoof has been pared down.

Violet's near hind hoof is chunkier and complete.

The pink and blue pony not only seems a bit smaller than the two purples, but it also has a dulled finish like its Head Up counterpart.

You can see the size and finish variations well here. (And some ribbon ones, too!)

While I was excited to get all four pieces of this new set,

I was most excited to find the blue and pink Head Down piece.

A quick check showed that its near hoof

had also been trimmed down a bit.

And look at the plume difference!

The piece is a little smaller than Violet

and its finish is quite a bit dulled when compared to the two purple and greens. I am chalking that up to smoking as my best guess at the moment. Certainly more research is needed.

My Freeman Leidy collection is now up to nine horses and two wagons. I'd love to have each pair and their counterpart colors. Plus, there is a mysterious color that I am looking for:

The blue and yellow pair. 

I first saw them in this sales ad but someone else snapped them up before I could buy them. Clearly they are a Head Up/Head Down pair. But is there a counterpart? A yellow and blue pair? Blue was already paired with pink; shouldn't yellow have been paired with a different color then?

I've never seen that, just as I haven't seen a blue and pink Head Up horse. (I've now got the Head Down blue and pink, so I strongly suspect there is a Head Up one to match.)

That sales picture also confirmed the production of the Head Down in green and purple.

I'm on the hunt for that one, too.

Things that make collecting fun! (And your wallet light. LOL)

A New Song Has Dropped!

Remember the behind the scenes video of Cambria and Titan recording their latest song?

That video, One Tiny Seed, dropped yesterday! And of course Grammy here has watched it a bunch o'times already and probably will do that again today.

In case you can't pick them out of a crowd (::cough cough::), 

this is Cambria

and this is Titan. (Screenshots from One Tiny Seed.)

The new song is billed as a Father's Day/Mother's Day song but it has broader applications.

Cambria was especially excited that her peace heart got some screen time.

Have a look if you want and enjoy.

In the meantime, the next Freeman Leidy post about the Head Down Circus Horses is partially done. Between the the dogs staying the weekend and Daylight Savings Time, I may not get it finished until tomorrow.

I was hoping to take a nice Saturday afternoon nap yesterday...

... and they were hoping to have some of Craig's Saturday night dinner!

See what I mean? We don't get as much done as usual when they are here, but we don't mind. They are good company and make us laugh. 

Look for that Freeman Leidy post tomorrow.

Stay 'tooned!

Heads Up!

Get ready - your eyes may start hurting as you view these photos of the garish, beribboned Freeman Leidy Head Up Ponies!

I have five of them in my collection and they are lined up left to right, newest to oldest (as in, most recently added to my collection.)

 Pink and blue (just arrived), green and purple (VERY hard to find), pink and blue, purple and green (the flipped counterpart of the green and purple), and my original, the one that started it all, a pink and blue.

I have seen flips of every color pair - they all have a Head Up counterpart where their mane and ribbon colors are flipped like the green/purple and purple/green are. They also all have a Head Down companion with similar flipped counterparts.

So much color! So much frou-frou and frippery!!

The plumes are separate pieces that were added during production and you can see that sometimes they were rotated a bit. And, some ended up being taller than the plumes on others.

My purple/green Head Up Circus Pony arrived with a broken plume several years ago (despite a stellar packing job on the part of the seller.) The break was crumbling and powdery and very, very delicate.

Normally I don't repair my chinas, but I didn't want to risk sending the piece out and then back home again, so I did a quick repair myself. 

In this next picture, compare it (second from right) to the pink (on the far right.) See the difference in the height of their plumes? (Look at the plumes' stalks.)

In fact, as you look at the group, you can see other variations in height, where the individual feathers of the plumes are, and the angle that the plumes tilt.

That's when I realized that the plume was a separate piece and added during production.

There is another difference between my new Head Up and the other four already in my collection. It was difficult to photograph. 

The Freeman Leidys are heavily glossed and very shiny,

but the finish on much of my new Head Up is quite dull.

It is on the right in this photo; can you see the difference?

It's the one on the left in this photo.

The new piece does have some places where you can see it had been glazed, but most of it is that dulled finish.

I've begun to wonder if the new Freeman Leidys were in a home where something in their environment accumulated on the finish. Were there smokers in the home? Cigarette smoke does accumulate on things.*** 

It will be interesting to compare my two new Head Down Circus Horses with the two already in my collection and see if they, too, have a duller finish than their counterparts.

Stay 'tooned!

***Both Craig's parents and mine were heavy smokers for decades. They all stopped when we were kids and the dangers of smoking were better known. A few years after that, Craig's folks decided to paint their living room. As the pictures on the walls were removed, the paint beneath them where they had been hung was new and white. The walls not covered by the paintings were very yellowed in comparison.

It was a sobering reminder of what smoking could do and I clearly remember Craig's mom expressing shock at the smoke residue on her walls and then gratitude that she had quit.

Wagons Ho!

(Collectors of a certain age will catch that title's reference. Hah!)

My plans are to examine my new Freeman Leidys piece by piece and compare them to those I already have in my collection. Deciding to begin with the wagons, I immediately ran into a problem.

My purple and green wagon is tucked into the living room china cabinet behind some potted plants and the loveseat. (A rearrangement I did at Christmas to make the living room bigger and, more importantly, add a layer of protection for the pieces inside the cabinet.)

To remove the wagon for photographing is more than I am up to at the moment; good thing I took pictures of that wagon before I put it in there.

The purple and green wagon incorporates all five colors that are used on the Freeman Leidy circus horses: green, purple, pink, blue, and yellow.

The cherubs look much happier than those on the pink and blue wagon! (They also have painted toenails.)

Aside from the maroon color on the trumpets, there are only three of those five colors used on my new wagon: pink, blue, and yellow. 

A big bow is on the back of both wagons but just as the ribbons in the manes and tails of the horses vary, so do the wagon ribbons. 

They look hand drawn to me, not stenciled, but I'm still thinking about that. I'd love to see another wagon to compare.

Happy cherubs with belly buttons and painted toes.

At least one unhappy cherub, both with belly butttons, and no painted toes.

The front of the purple and green wagon where the horses would stand has a hazy purple border.

A barely there pink border is on the other.

A maker's mark on the bottom of the purple and green wagon.

Interesting how that has been rotated 90 degrees on the pink and blue. Also, the "O" is lowercase. (In her book, Exploring the Model Horse Hobby, author Nancy Kelly states that the "CO" stands for "Ceramics Original" and that these were made in the 1940s.)  

Since aquiring the purple and green wagon, I have passed over several other Freeman Leidy wagons. They're big, they're fragile, and they take up space.

Now that I have an in-hand pink and blue one, I wish I had not - I'd love to have a third example to compare to these two. (In other words, translate that into, "Lynn is now doing searches for Freeman Leidy wagons." Hah!)

Tomorrow I plan to begin comparing the horses. Having said that, Nashie and Mama are spending the weekend with us, and that always ramps up the activity in our house and can keep me so busy, I don't get everything done that I'd like.

So, stay 'tooned on that!

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!