Breyer Mysteries: Christmas decorators

Since I have a bit of extra free time this week, I thought it would be fun to tackle another holiday related blog topic, the infamous Breyer "Christmas decorators" rumor. While Breyer has blessed us with a variety of modern holiday decorator offerings in the last few years, everything from dappled red and green horses to clearware to candy cane striped zebras, the subject of vintage Christmas decorators always sparks a debate. Do they exist or don't they? Has anyone really seen one? Can anyone prove it one way or another?

Before we tackle that subject, it's useful to consider the history of the traditional Breyer decorators, the blue and gold beauties that collectors prize so much. In 1964, Breyer offered four decorator colors---gold charm, florentine, wedgewood, and copenhagen---on five molds, the Running Mare and Foal, the Five-Gaiter, the Mustang, and the Fighting Stallion. Very little documentation for them exists, but they were offered for sale in holiday catalogs like Aldens, in department stores like Montgomery Wards, and in five-and-dime stores like Ben Franklin. They did not sell well however, and were probably discontinued by 1965. Despite not having been made very long, the Breyer decorators do seem to have been issued in fairly large quantities. They remain rare to be sure, but a patient collector will find multiple decorators for sale every year on eBay or social media. 

Gold charm Mustang, copenhagen Running Mare, 
wedgewood Running Foal, and florentine Five-Gaiter

Which brings us to the purported vintage Christmas decorators. By the late 1990s, a few collectors reported rumors of Christmas decorators possibly spotted when they or someone they knew were children in the 1960s. These models were supposedly either dappled red and green much like the florentine and copenhagen models, or they were solid red and green with white points like the gold charm and wedgewood decorators. Nancy Young mentions these observations in her Breyer Molds and Models books with a good deal of skepticism, and interestingly, she notes that there is no mention of them at all in Marney Walerius' book published several years earlier.

This is significant for several reasons. The first is that Marney began visiting the factory and acting as a consultant to Breyer in the late 1960s, only 2 or 3 years after the decorators were released. She had kept records of seeing the blue and gold decorators in stores near her home in the Chicago suburbs, so if red and green decorators had been available, she would have been ideally placed to have observed them, either in stores or at the factory. In addition, Marney did not shy away from including information in her book that trended more toward rumor than observed fact, and it's interesting to me that the Christmas decorator rumor was apparently not circulating when she published her book in 1991. I myself never heard it until I read about it in Nancy's book though I was familiar with other persistent hobby rumors at that time (more on those in a future post).

Nancy Young also mentioned that the late blogger and Breyer historian Andrea Gurdon had been told by another collector that they had found old Christmas catalogs that contained red and green decorators. This person never did provide Andrea with any proof of these claims, and pretty much all of the Sears, Penneys, and Wards catalogs are now scanned online in their entirety. None of them have red and green decorators, although a Copenhagen Running Mare and Foal can be seen in a the 1964 Aldens catalog and a trio of Gold Charm decorators have popped up in another catalog from that year. Andrea wrote about the Christmas decorator rumor several times and likewise remained skeptical of their existence.

 

As of this writing in December 2020, not one credible scrap of evidence of the existence of vintage Christmas decorators has yet come to light. No models have ever turned up, no photos have been discovered, and not a single ad, price list, or catalog entry has been found. As far as I know, there are no mentions of them in vintage hobby publications either. There are of course gaps in the paper trail of Breyer history, especially in the early years of the company, so it is possible that any documentation has simply been lost to time. After all, only a few documents pertaining to the blue and gold decorators are known.

1964 decorator dealer sheet

But while the lack of documentation is not surprising, I do think it's odd that no models have turned up in the last 55+ years. Other small runs from the 1960s are known, even in multiples, like the wedgewood Fury Prancers, the wedgewood Longhorns, and the In Between Mares. Had red and green decorators really been available in stores as reported, you would think at least one or two would have survived and turned up in an estate sale or antique mall. Also, given that the traditional decorators were only available for about a year and given that they did not sell well, would Breyer really have added red and green horses to the unsuccessful blue and gold line up?

It has been suggested by other collectors that the Christmas decorators may be the hobby's equivalent of the Mandela effect, and I suspect they're right. Human memory is of course fallible and definitely persuadable and changeable. The power of suggestion and confabulation of memories are common and well-known phenomena, and they are something pretty much all of us experience. I know I have absolutely misremembered things I thought I was certain of! This might also explain why this rumor doesn't appear to have begun circulating until the late 1990s.

So with all of this in mind, I remain skeptical of the existence of vintage Christmas decorators. We can't prove their existence any more than we can disprove it, but as more time passes without one coming to light, the less likely it seems that any ever will. I sure would love a dappled red or green Five-Gaiter like the modern test pair that exists in the Breyer sample room. Maybe Breyer will bless us with some some vintage molds for their Christmas morning special run one of these years. Maybe even tomorrow? A girl can dream!

Stephanie Macejko in the archive room at Breyer with
the test run 5-Gaiters painted in the 2000s

Breyer Music Boxes

Since the holidays are just around the corner, this seems like a good time for a post about some of the earliest Christmas catalog special runs Breyer produced, the Fury Prancer music boxes. Issued for several years in the mid-1950s through the Sears holiday catalog, the music box Prancers came in three varieties---palomino with a Cowboy or Lucky Ranger, black and white pinto with an Indian Brave or Chief, and alabaster with an unknown rider.

The music boxes are fairly simple in construction. The musical mechanism itself rests inside the horse's chest and is held in place either by its own size and weight, or in some cases, by a pair of screws in the left shoulder and behind the left elbow that help secure it. A hole cut in the shoulder allows the owner to use a small metal key to wind up the music box mechanism to play. The music boxes were added to the models when they were fresh out of the mold and still in two halves. Once installed, the halves were glued together, and the horses were painted up and accessorized just like their non-music box Prancer brethren. 

The models are very clearly factory originals but some lingering confusion about them still exists, so I'll do my best to clear that up. When collectors first became aware of the Prancer music boxes, there was some thought that they were after market, an idea put forth in Marney Walerius' Breyer Models: Reference and Insurance Guide published in 1991.* Marney wrote that an enterprising Breyer employee took the horse halves home and installed the music boxes before bringing the models back to the factory to be finished. He then supposedly paid Breyer for the models and either sold them or gave them away to family and friends.¹ At the time Marney wrote this, very few examples of music boxes were known, and no records about the pieces had surfaced, so she must be excused for what is likely an apocryphal account. 

By the time Nancy Young published her Breyer Molds and Models book in the late 1990s however, important documentation had come to light that revealed the music boxes to have been a rather larger endeavor. To wit, the 1955, 1956, and 1957 Sears catalogs advertised the Breyer music boxes. The 1955 and 1956 editions offered both the palomino and pinto music box Prancers while the 1957 catalog listed only the palomino. In the intervening twenty years since then, a number of palomino and pinto Prancers have turned up, so they're not nearly as rare as they were once thought to be. This combined with the knowledge that the music boxes were official Sears special runs pretty conclusively demonstrates that one employee could never have filled orders to meet the demands of a national catalog (and it makes no sense whatsoever that Breyer would allow an employee to sell as a middle man to Sears either). 

More evidence that the music box idea very likely originated with Sears can be found in the original catalog pages. The palomino and pinto Prancer music boxes are pictured with a variety of other music boxes, everything from dolls and stuffed animals to decorative teapots and purses. The page describes all of them as having Swiss movements which suggests to me that Sears sought out the various  manufacturers of these items and provided the music boxes to them to incorporate into items they already manufactured. The Breyer factory was only a short distance from Sears' main distribution hub and offices in Chicago, so it certainly would have been easy for Breyer and Sears to work together (which of course we know they did for decades).
 

1955 Sears catalog music box assortment

1956 Sears catalog snippet

The 1956 and 1957 catalogs clearly show a Lucky Ranger rider on the palomino Prancer, but the 1955 catalog may show a Cowboy (he appears to have a dark inner shirt rather than a white one). Given the pretty similar color schemes on the Cowboys and Lucky Rangers, it's possible they shipped indiscriminately regardless of the year. The music box in the palomino Prancers plays "Home on the Range."

Lucky Ranger and palomino music box Prancer

The 1955 catalog shows the Breyer Indian Brave with brown pants and squiggly war paint on his arms while the 1956 catalog, which is sepia-toned, appears to show the Indian Chief with turquoise pants and no war paint on his arms. The 1955 description said the brave came with both a plastic feather and the hard-to-find paper headdress while the 1956 catalog listed the single feather and the plastic headdress that replaced the fragile paper version. It's possible both brown and turquoise pants examples were available both years. The music box in the pinto Prancers plays "From the Land of Sky-Blue Water," the popular 1909 song by Charles Wakefield Cadman. 

Indian Chief on a black and white music box Prancer showing
 both styles of headdress and the original parts diagram

Both the palomino and pinto Prancers came in two variations---with or without support screws. The sets without the screws are probably earlier and seem to be slightly less common. The sets with the screws have two---one inserted at the top of the left shoulder and the other just behind the left elbow, presumably to keep the music box from shifting around inside the horse.  

With support screws (left) and without (right)

The alabaster Prancer music boxes however remain a mystery. No reference materials related to them have been discovered, and they are so scarce that for a time, many collectors (including me) wondered if they even existed. One or two were spotted on sales sites in the mid-2000s, though I'm not aware of any hobbyist who actually owns one. The only example I have seen a picture of sports an English saddle (identical to the Race Horse's saddle) and the very hard to find red saddle blanket that is typically associated with the Canadian Mountie. The red saddle blanket is the same design more commonly seen in blue with the Mounties. The red saddle blankets and English saddles were also sold as alternatives to Western Saddles on at least one 1950s price list, but they are so rare that they can't have been available long.

Image courtesy of Robin R.

Could this model originally have come with a Canadian Mountie rider then? If so, this begs at least two questions. One, could it have been offered by Simpsons-Sears in Canada since it was not apparently offered by Sears in the US? Simpsons-Sears did offer at least one unique Breyer special run, a Fury Prancer grooming kit, so it would not be surprising that they might have offered a music box, too. And two, what tune did the music box play? "Oh Canada" or perhaps a tune from the famous Musical Ride? Or just "Home on the Range?" The 1957 Simpsons-Sears catalog does not show a music box, and unfortunately, I have not yet been able to locate catalogs from 1955 or 1956, so I can't shed any more light on this theory yet.

I have heard of one other alabaster music box that had a Robin Hood rider, but it may actually have been the same model pictured above with some alterations to the accessories by the seller. (The history of the piece is a tad murky, and it was offered for sale several times.) Marney also mentioned such a set in her book and claimed the music box played the William Tell Overture. She named the rider as William Tell rather than Robin Hood which coincides with an old hobby rumor that the two known versions of the Robin Hood figure were actually meant to be Robin Hood (green hat and boots) and William Tell (red hat and boots). 

Robin Hood variations

No documentation has ever been found to support this however, so Marney's appellation may be wishful thinking. She did not say whether or not she had actually seen or heard the alabaster music box she references. Until one is found by a collector or until some documentation turns up, it will remain a mystery. If anyone reading this blog happens to have one, please let me know! And if anyone has a lead on the 1955 or 1956 Simpsons-Sears Christmas catalog, I would love to have a look.

(And obviously, even knowing what a long shot it is, I'd love to buy one of these alabaster music boxes if anyone is selling!) 

* For those not familiar with the name, Marney Walerius was a well-known collector who lived in the Chicago suburbs. She began visiting the Breyer factory in the late 1960s and eventually did consulting work for the company until it moved to New Jersey in 1984. Marney helped design and paint test runs and had an extensive collection. She is considered one of the founders of the hobby in the United States. 

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1. Walerius, Marney J. Breyer Models: Reference and Insurance Guide. (Barrington, IL: Self published, 1991), pg. 20.

Western Horse Shaped Objects Wrap Up

Now that I've completed all of the Western Horse shaped objects posts, I thought it would be handy to post a link to them all here in one place. Enjoy!

Part 1: Mastercrafters Clocks: A brief history of Mastercrafters horse clocks and their relationship with Hartland and Breyer. Also a discussion of the differences between the Hartland Victor, Breyer Western Horse, and Hartland Champ.

Part 2: Superior Plastics, Ohio Plastics, and the Wells Lamont Connection: An in depth discussion of the Hartland Victor and the models copied from it by Superior Plastics and Ohio Plastics.

Part 3: Breyer, Textured Tack, Kroll, Hong Kong, and more! Breyer Western Horses and Ponies and their many, many, many copies. 

Part 4: Weird Clocks, Metal Clocks, and Gladys Brown Edwards: Unusual Breyer clocks, Superior Plastics and textured tack clocks, metal horse clocks, and the Gladys Brown Edwards connection.

Western Horse Shaped Objects: Part 4: Weird Clocks, Metal Clocks, and Gladys Brown Edwards

(Part one can be found here; part two is here; and part three is here.)

As promised in the preceding installments of this series, this last post about Western Horse shaped objects will cover the oddball clocks that have popped up over the years. (I may eventually rewrite this and weave them into the first three posts as warranted, but for now, enjoy the new weirdness here!)


The Other Western Horse-Beside-the-Clock

Most Breyer collectors are familiar with the horse-beside-the-clock models made by Mastercrafters. They stand at an angle beside an enameled metal clock in a horseshoe-shaped housing on a brown marbled plastic base. Beneath the horseshoe is a bas-relief of a cowboy roping a steer. The clocks are electric and have been found with palomino or alabaster horses and date to about 1951-1953 right after the horse-over-the-clocks were made. The backs of these clocks feature the same six patent numbers (relating to the clock movements) that are found on the back of the horse-over-the-clock models.

A close up of the clock housing

 A couple of years ago, two examples of an unusual variation of the horse-beside-the-clock were posted on Facebook. Both were identical featuring grey-hooved palomino Western Horses with o-link reins and high-grommet saddles standing beside an unusual clock. The clock has an enameled housing (with no horseshoe) featuring a bas-relief of a cowboy on a horse, a cowboy hat, and a pistol and gun belt. Both of these clocks had "fancy face" Sessions faces and movements (which are found on other Mastercrafters clocks), and both were cordless, wind-up clocks..

(Owned and photographed by Jennifer Enslin)

(Owned and photographed by Jennifer Enslin)

Just a few weeks ago, I stumbled on a third example of these clocks, but mine seems to be a mix of both horse-beside-the-clock styles. Mine is electric (though the cord has been cut off), and it has a plain Sessions face and back identical to the horseshoe clocks while having the more unusual clock housing. It too features a grey-hooved palomino Western Horse with o-link reins and a high grommet saddle.

I'm not sure how these unusual clocks fit into the timeline. Mine is clearly a Mastercrafters clock, so I'm sure the other two must be as well. The grey hooves on all three examples would suggest that they are later than the black-hooved models typically seen on the horseshoe clocks. But the O-link reins date them no later than 1953 according to Nancy Young.¹

With that in mind and given the scarcity of these clocks, they likely were made near to the end of the Western Horse clock production. They may have been available concurrently with the last of the horseshoe clocks as another stylistic ordering option. Electric versus wind-up may also have been an ordering choice (although I don't know of any wind-up horseshoe clocks). Or perhaps they were made just after the horseshoe clocks, and mine seems to be a transitional piece between the two styles. No alabaster examples of these unusual clocks have been found as of this writing, but they may exist as well. If these unusual clocks post-dated the horseshoe clocks, given how few are known to collectors compared to the horseshoe clocks, they probably were not made very long. But if that is the case, why?

A fourth version of this clock may hold the answer. I have seen a photo of one other clock with the same mounted cowboy, hat, and pistol clock housing. The housing is painted or enameled in gold however, and it is mounted on a reddish-orange marbled base to the right of the horse. The horse, which is a black Superior Plastics model rather than a Breyer, is mounted in line with the clock rather than at an angle. It appears to have the same Sessions face as my clock (and the usual horseshoe clocks), so it's probably a Mastercrafters product, too. (Nancy Young describes it as such in her unpublished book notes as well [cited with her gracious permission]). 

Perhaps having parted ways with Hartland and possibly then Breyer for whatever reasons, Mastercrafters turned to Superior, another Chicago plastic molding company for horse models for their clocks. It could be the reason that Superior Plastics copied the Hartland Victor horse in the first place and then went on to start selling free-standing horses, too, just like Hartland and Breyer did. We know the Superior Plastics horses were in production in 1955 (and very likely a year or two earlier), so this line of reasoning would fit neatly if the Breyer clocks were discontinued in about 1953. 

Textured Tack Horse Clocks

As I mentioned in the last installment, textured tack horses have been found mounted beside clocks, too. We don't know who made these clocks any more than we know who made the horses. The clock housing and base are made of matching pink marbled plastic. The clock housing has a scalloped edge and a bas-relief of a cactus, pistols, and cowboy boots. The base has a ruffled edge, and the horse stands in line with the clock rather than at an angle. I have only seen palomino and alabaster examples. The clock face is marked "Movement by Sessions, Made in the USA," but there are no other identifying marks on these clocks. Interestingly, the clock faces have Roman numerals rather than the usual Arabic numerals you see on Mastercrafters clocks.

(Owned and photographed by Carrie Brooks)

Metal Horse Clocks

So that brings us to the elephant in the room---what relation, if any, do the ubiquitous metal horse clocks have to their plastic brethren? No doubt most hobbyists have seen a clock like this while poking around in an antique shop or flea market. They're everywhere, made by the gazillions apparently, and in a variety of finishes on varying bases.

A typical "horseshoe" metal horse clock example

Most of the horse clocks are pot metal with a gold, bronze, or copper colored finish, but a few have  silver finishes, and a few appear to have been painted, too. They can be found on wood, metal, or plastic bases. The clock housing on the vast majority of them features either a horseshoe with a bas-relief of two horses below it or a ruffled frame with a bas-relief of cowboy boots, a hat, and pistols.

A typical "ruffled" metal horse clock

Other styles do exist though----there are almost as many variations as there are clocks. Some are on stylized rocky terrain bases (circa 1955 based on newspaper ads).

Some are paired with cowboys and/or cowgirls.

A metal Mastercrafters clock

Circa 1950 based on newspaper ads

A painted clock

Most metal horse clocks are arranged with the horse to the right of the clock facing it. A few are reversed.  

Another painted clock

A few are Mastercrafters products while others were made by United, Lanshire, Spartus, Carmody, Gilbert, and more. This particular example below is probably Mastercrafters---the horseshoe clock on this example is the version usually found with the Breyer Western Horses beside-the-clocks, but in gold rather than creamy white. (Most metal horse clocks with horseshoe frames have two horses under the shoe rather than the cowboy roping the steer.) The face and metal back of the clock are Sessions just like those seen on Breyer clocks, and the base itself is identical to Breyer clock bases. The question is did this piece come before or after the Breyer clocks?

Before I started researching this series of posts, I assumed the metal horse clocks were copies of the Breyer horses beside the clocks. But I have since found newspaper ads featuring metal horses beside clocks from as early as March 1949, so they clearly pre-date Breyer horses full stop and possibly Hartland's horses and clocks, too.

Ad from The Record (Hackensack, NJ), March 11, 1949

The earliest ruffled top horse-beside-the-clock ad I can find is from October 1949. Mastercrafters fans will recognize that company's popular ship clock in the ad. Perhaps the metal horse clock is Mastercrafters, too? 

Ad from the Daily News (New York, NY), October 14, 1949

And the first horseshoe clock ad I can find dates to December 1950. 

Ad from the Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA, December 22, 1950

The metal horse clock ads appear throughout the 1950s and peter out in the mid-1960s, but they were clearly wildly popular while they lasted. The clocks were most commonly sold in jewelry and furniture stores, and I found multiple news stories about burglarized jewelry stores that cited gold horse clocks among the stolen items. One thief even stated outright that a horse clock was his primary reason for breaking into and robbing a jewelry store.² 

As you'll have seen from the pictures above, the vast majority of metal horses on these clocks have their mane on the left side of the neck, their right hind foot placed ahead of the left hind foot, a flat-bottomed hollow tails, and elaborate parade-style Western tack. They are in fact all copies, though often crude, of a magnificent sculpture by renowned equine artist Gladys Brown Edwards referred to as the "Big Horse" by collectors. A photo published in Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast, Horsedom's Hall of Fame in 1947 gives us a date for this piece, and many of the pieces are marked with that same date as well.³

Gladys is probably most famous for her expertise on and paintings of Arabian horses, but she was an immensely talented sculptor as well. She grew up in Los Angeles where she attended art school and eventually went to work for the famous Kellogg Arabian Ranch. She sculpted a variety of breeds besides Arabians including drafters, stock horses, Saddlebreds, and even cattle. A number of her pieces were issued by Dodge, Inc., a trophy company, as bookends, horse show trophies, and art pieces. Dodge began in Chicago, but expanded to Los Angeles and elsewhere in the 1930s. 

Which brings us back to the Big Horse. Collectors generally agree that he was probably inspired by a Morgan stallion (or stallions) that Gladys had sketched and painted in the 1940s. The fancy bridle and elaborate saddle depicted on Gladys' horse resemble those worn by parade horses in southern California at that time. Some have wondered if the Big Horse might be a Saddlebred, and while it's certainly plausible, especially if he was inspired by a parade horse, the sculpture more closely resembles Gladys' Morgan art. Whatever the case, the piece is of interest because it was issued by Dodge standing over a clock as seen below. Note the removable saddle. It most likely dates to 1947 or 1948. 

Copies of the Gladys Brown Edwards piece standing over a clock were advertised by May 1949. (We can identify the copies by the loose, flat-bottomed tail. (Gladys' horses' tails were attached to the left hock as seen above.)

Ad from the Pampa Daily News (Pampa, TX), May 1, 1949

Another horse standing over a clock pops up in June 1949, only this time in plastic. Does this guy look familiar? Though the ad states that the horse below is bronze on a mahogany base, it is unmistakably a plastic Hartland Victor on a plastic Mastercrafters clock base. (And in case there is any doubt, Hartland expert Mike Jackson found a Mastercrafters ad using the very same photo that describes the piece as plastic.)

Without a doubt, the miscellaneous metal horses on these clocks, whether standing over or beside the clocks, were copied from Gladys Brown Edward's sculpture produced by Dodge, Inc. The idea of the horse clocks themselves also seems to have been copied from Dodge. Interestingly, Mastercrafters was conveniently located only a few blocks south of the the Dodge factory in Chicago. Because Mastercrafters was apparently issuing metal horse copies beside clocks as early as October 1949, and given their close proximity to the Dodge factory, it stands to reason that their plastic horse clocks were inspired by Dodge's metal horse clocks as well.

So while it is clear that the metal horse clock figurines are copies of Gladys' Big Horse, we move into the realm of speculation when it comes to what inspired the plastic Victor models made by Hartland for Mastercrafters. The Victor horse pictured in the Hartland ad above stands square as opposed to with one hind foot forward like the Gladys Brown Edwards horse and its multitude of copies, but his mane is on the left side of his neck, his head and tail set are similar, and his tack also appears to be fancy Western parade style. His saddle is even removable, too. The Victor's slightly different stance may be simply a matter of practicality to ensure his legs clear the clock on the narrow plastic base, or it may simply have been for ease in molding (or both). The round clocks used by Mastercrafters for their horse clocks, both over and beside, were a standard size they used regularly for other clocks, and both the Breyers and Hartlands that stand over the clocks had to have their bellies pushed inward a bit after molding to fit over the clock. (Why the base wasn't sculpted a little taller on either side of the clock to fix this issue is unknown.) This extra step (and presumably the regular occurrence of seam splits) may be why Mastercrafters made only a small number of horses over the clock before switching to horses beside the clocks.

With this in mind, I think it's pretty likely that Hartland sculptor Roger Williams created the Victor not as a copy of the Gladys Brown Edwards' horse, but he certainly seems to have used it as a template of sorts. Mastercrafters presumably dictated what sort of horse figurine they wanted, and they may have offered up examples of their own metal horse clocks for him to study. Breyer's Western Horse of course was sculpted by Chris Hess as a nearly identical copy of Hartland's Victor. 

To the best of my knowledge, Hartland never assigned a breed to the Victor nor to the subsequent Champs. Likewise, Breyer never mentioned a breed for the Western Horse until this year when it was described as Saddlebred-like in their 70th anniversary promotional materials. While the Victor and Western Horse are pretty generic sculptures, the idea of them being Saddlebred-like does make some sense if we accept that these models were all ultimately inspired by the parade horses of the 1940s. 

There are a number of pieces to this puzzle, and some of them are lost, so I don't think we can ever say conclusively that the Hartland Victors and Breyer Western Horses were derived from the Gladys Brown Edwards Big Horse piece, but I think the evidence is pretty strong that it inspired a slew of metal copies and the plastic horse clocks were probably inspired by the metal copies if not directly by the original Big Horse. So in a somewhat roundabout fashion, there is a connection. 

I hope you've all enjoyed reading this series of posts about Hartland Victors, Breyer Western Horses, and other similar models, both copies and predecessors, as much as I have enjoyed writing them. I'm not sure what I'll post about next---I've got about a dozen different ideas---but stay tuned for information on how to vote for what you'd like to see. Thanks for reading!

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1. Young, Nancy. Breyer Molds and Models: Horses, Riders, and Animals. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1999), pg. 345.

2. "Police Arrest Man for Stealing From Local Jewelry Store." The Freehold Transcript and The Monmouth Inquirer, September 26, 1957.

3. Martin, Carolyn. Gladys Brown Edwards' Equine Works in Metal. (Galesburg, MI: Published by the author, 2008), pg. 22. 

Western Horse Shaped Objects, Part 3: Breyer, Textured Tack, Kroll, Hong Kong, and more!

(Part one of this series can be found here; part two is here.)

As discussed in the previous two installments of this series, the Breyer Western Horse, while much copied, is in fact itself a copy of the Hartland Victor model. Now that we've covered the Hartland Victor copies, it's time to move on to the Breyer Western Horse and its many, many copies.

Technically, the first copy of the Breyer Western Horse was the Breyer Western Pony. Other than a few small differences such as the number of studs on the browband and how the breast collar is overlaid by the mane, the Western Pony is nearly identical to the Western Horse, only smaller. We know the Western Horse debuted in 1950, and the scaled down Western Pony followed by late 1953.¹ A number of the manufacturers that copied the Western Horse also copied the Western Pony, so I'll include those in this post, too.

To begin with, here are the Breyer Western Horse and Pony with snap saddles and slip on saddles as both versions have been copied. The snap saddles were made from 1950 until their last appearance in a Breyer catalog in 1966. There was no 1967 catalog, only a few insert pages introducing a handful of new models. The 1968 catalog shows the new slip on saddles, so the change-over happened sometime in 1967 or at the start of 1968, but we don't know exactly when.

Early Western Pony and Horse with snap saddles

Later Western Pony and Horse with slip on saddles

Textured Tack Horses and Ponies

The earliest Western Horse and Pony copies I know of were dubbed "textured tack" horses by Breyer  historian Nancy Young. The "textured tack" moniker comes from the distinct pattern found on the bridles, breast collars, and saddles (to a lesser degree) on these models. Nancy likens it to a chicken wire pattern. The saddles are similar to Breyer's snap saddles but lack girths. The reins are ball chains. There are both textured tack horses and ponies.

Textured tack horse and pony in brown pinto (the horse is yellowed)

A close up of the textured breast collar

Besides the textured tack, these models differ from the Breyers in several ways. Their legs are a bit thinner but their hooves are bigger and slightly oblong. The tails are also a bit different, but the pony's is more noticeably so, being thinner and pointier than the Breyer original. They do have a nice, very Breyer-like heft to them, and they seem to be well-made compared to some of the other copies out there.

Textured tack horse (left) and Breyer Western Horse (right)

Textured tack pony (left) and Breyer Western Pony (right)

The textured tack horses and ponies have been found in several colors so far: brown and white pinto, black and white pinto, palomino, alabaster, and black. The pintos have an unusual sort of reverse splash white pattern like white paint was spilled along their topline. Some collectors refer to them as "snowcaps" because of this.

A black and white "snowcap" example (photos from eBay)

A palomino textured tack horse (photo courtesy of Deirdre Price)

The white plastic on these models tends to fall into two types, a very opaque almost chalky looking plastic and a softer, more luminous, slightly translucent plastic. This difference is easy to spot in person, and I hope it can be seen in this photo despite the softer-toned plastic model being yellowed everywhere except where his saddle was. The model on the right is the chalky-plastic type model.

Even though they have the same paint pattern, the paint is also softer and slightly muted looking on the non-chalky plastic model as seen on the model on the right below and the palomino pictured above.

Chalky plastic on the left, softer, more luminous plastic on the right

Interestingly, even though these textured tack horses are copied from Breyers, they have been found with cowboys copied from Hartland's Large and Small Champ series. They are made in nicely weighted plastic just like the horses, and both have their guns molded into their holsters. The larger cowboy is copied from the early version of Hartland's cowboy that had a cigarette in his right hand. The examples I own and have seen are also made in the softer-looking plastic mentioned above and have a soft, diffused quality to the paint. I'm not sure if other colorways exist for these riders besides these shown below. They might have (I would guess probably did) come with hats.

I suspect these models date from the mid-1950s for two reasons. The first is that the maker seems to have copied the earliest colors used on the Breyer Western Horses and Ponies which were all available by 1954 or 1955. And secondly, the riders associated with these models were only made by Hartland from about 1954-1957. Given how hard they are to find, I would guess they were made for a relatively short time.

So all that said, while the textured tack models are easy enough to identify, the maker of these models is still a complete mystery. They were thought to be Lido products at one time, but no evidence has come to light to support that. Having owned several Lido horse and rider sets, I would be very surprised if Lido was the manufacturer based on the quality disparity between them. As I said above, the textured tack models seem to made of nicely weighted plastic and are nicely painted. Lido in comparison specialized in cheap "slum" toys---usually small items molded quickly, easily, and cheaply in one color of plastic. They primarily made small cowboy and Indian play sets, but they did make some larger horse and rider sets as well. Like their smaller counterparts, the larger pieces are molded simply in cheap, light-weight plastic, the reins and saddles are not separate pieces, and the paint jobs are uncomplicated and usually in bright, primary colors.

A typical Lido horse and rider set

Stablemate scale Lido "slum" horses and cowboys

So who made the textured tack models? Unfortunately, we don't know. The horses, ponies, and riders are all completely unmarked. The only hints I have found are the letter "T" on the underside of the textured tack horse saddle I have and the letter "A" on the underside of a pony saddle owned by another collector. (My own pony saddle is unmarked.) The marks appear to be deliberate, and if it were just a sprue or molding artifact, I would expect it to be round, like the mark above and to the left of the "T." It's a mystery for now.

"T" mark is just above my fingernail

Palomino and alabaster examples of textured tack horses have been found mounted on pink marbled bases beside clocks in a style very similar to the Breyer Mastercrafters horses beside the clocks. The shape and design of the clock housing is a bit different from Breyer clocks, and the base has a distinctive ruffled edge. Also, the horses are mounted in line with the clocks rather than at an angle. The clock movement is by Sessions, but unfortunately, the clock housing is not marked. Both Mastercrafters and United sometimes used Sessions movements. (In fact, United eventually merged with Sessions.) I'll discuss the various knock off clocks in the fourth installment of this blog series.

Palomino textured tack horse clock (photo courtesy of Carrie Brooks)

Kroll Ponies

We do at least seem to have a company name for this next bunch of copies, but unfortunately, very little is known about it. These models are copies of the Breyer Western Pony only, and they are marked "KROLL" on the belly. While that seems like a great clue, I have had a frustrating time coming up with any information about the company. Two Kroll ponies have been found with what are believed to be original boxes. One is marked Kroll Trading Company of New York, NY, and the other may be marked Kroll Entrerprises, but I can't be sure because I don't have a clear photo of it. (You can see it here on the Model Horse Gallery site about two-thirds of the way down the page.) The addresses on both boxes lack a zip-code, dating them to pre-1963.

As far as I can tell, the Kroll pony manufacturer does not appear to be related to the Chicago manufacturer of Kroll baby cribs, nor, frustratingly, to board game inventor Fred Kroll who worked for Pressman, Milton Bradley, and others, and most famously invented Hungry Hungry Hippos. Fred Kroll did work in the toy business in New York at the right time, and Pressman did loosely copy some Breyers in the 1960s, but Fred's obituary does not mention the company. His only venture in his own name was Fred Kroll Associates, a consulting firm, not a manufacturer.

Kroll models are not painted but rather are molded in colored plastic. I have seen brown, black, gold, white, and several varieties of swirled plastic. They are quite close copies of the Breyer Western Pony, but they have two key differences. Kroll ponies have their mane on both sides of the neck, and they are marked "KROLL" on the belly. Some have been found with slip on saddles and ball chain reins.

Interestingly, metal copies of the Kroll ponies have been found. They are unmarked, so who made them and when is a mystery. I suspect they're probably Chinese copies from the last decade or two. I would love to find one of these!

Photo courtesy of Deirdre Price

Hong Kong Western Horses and Ponies

A variety of Breyer (and Hartland) models were copied in the 1970s by a Hong Kong manufacturer (or possibly several). Among them were the Western Horse and Pony. They are marked "Made in Hong Kong" and have a diamond shaped mold mark with the letter "P" inside. Some also have a three digit number. Some collectors refer to these models as "diamond P" horses, but we don't actually know if that mark has any bearing on the name of the manufacturer. Many early Hartlands, for instance, are similarly marked with the letter "I" inside a diamond, and it simply stands for Iolite, the trademarked name for the kind of plastic used by Hartland at the time.

These Hong Kong models are very close copies of the Breyer originals, but they are ever so slightly taller and wider. The ponies also tend to have slightly splayed legs. The Hong Kong models are molded in lighter plastic than Breyers.

Breyer Horse on the left; Hong Kong on the right 

Breyer Pony on the left; Hong Kong on the right 

Because they have slip on saddles (copied directly from Breyer), they can date no earlier than about 1969. I'm not sure how long they were made, but they can be found pretty easily, so they seem to have been produced in fairly large numbers in the 1970s and possibly into the 1980s. The horses however, in my experience, seem to be more common than the ponies. Most of the Hong Kong models appear to have a thin white chalky basecoat under their various paint jobs. I have seen black and white pintos, brown and white pintos, black leopard appaloosas, bays, smokes/charcoals, and more.

Photo from eBay 

Photo from eBay

Photo from eBay

Interestingly, at least one copy of these copies exists, this strange Western Horse/Pony knock off with a molded on saddle. It is also marked Hong Kong, and it is in between Classic and Little Bit scale.

Photo from eBay

Ringling Bros Circus and Disney On Ice Horses

Both the Ringling Brothers Circus and the Disney On Ice shows have sold Western Horse copies as souvenirs beginning in the early 2000s. Both shows are produced by Feld Entertainment, and the models were sold with hang tags bearing their name. The circus horse hang tag has a copyright date of 2001, and this coincides with when the pieces began to show up in hobby circles. (Furthermore, both hang tags say "made in China" rather than "made in Hong Kong," indicating they were made after 1997 when control of Hong Kong was returned to China from Britain.) The horses are the same mold, just painted differently. The mold itself is a slightly retooled and stream-lined version of the 1970s Hong Kong copies pictured above (which makes perfect sense given the physical location of the mold tooling). They have the same distinctive wide face as the Hong Kong horses, but some of the details like the hooves, forelock, and coronet bands have been refined slightly.

Circus horse left, Hong Kong horse right

The circus models are opalescent white with a little shading to outline the hair detail in the mane and tail. They have bright gold bridles and breast colors and metallic purply-green color shifting saddles. They also feature stretchy rubber pink or purple leg wraps and a fluffy pink feather for the crown of the bridle. (My own new-in-package model came with two feathers.) The saddles are based on the Hong Kong saddles, but they have been retooled with different decoration and to have a flatter profile for the tapaderos. They are molded separately and glued in place. A matte buckskin version with a star and three socks was also made, but it seems to be much less common. The white horses were probably better sellers.

My complete circus horse was purchased new in package

A version with purple wraps; photo from eBay (missing feather)

 

Photo from eBay

 

The buckskin circus horse (missing feather and tag)

 

 

The Disney models are also opalescent white, but they have iridescent purple manes and tails. They also have gold bridles, and the saddles are pink with purple accents. They have a two sided folding hang tag that reads "Disney on Ice" on one side and "Disney Princess Classics" on the other. The saddles say "Disney on Ice" on the seat and are glued on just as with the circus horses. They lack a hole in the head for a feather.

Photo from eBay

 

Made in China Minis

Stablemate scale copies of the Western Horse also exist. Some of these these pieces are marked "Made in Hong Kong" while others are marked "Made in China." The former match the larger 1970s horses in terms of common colors and likely were made around the same time. The made in China horses are later, made after 1997 as mentioned above. They have chain reins and cute slip on saddles. They also have molded on plastic rings on the their chests as if they were designed to be chained together like you see on some '50s and '60s ceramic and plastic toys. I have seen other colors like pinto and appalosa besides those in this set of black, grey, and bay. The painting is a bit sloppy, but these are very cute copies all the same.

Breyer Ornament

In 2006, Breyer released their own mini Western Horse as a holiday ornament. Sadly, it is a less skillful reproduction of the Western Horse than the made-in-China minis.

Photo from eBay

Tiny HO Scale Western Horse

Jordan Highway Miniatures copied the Western Horse in HO scale (approximately an inch tall) for a tiny popcorn wagon in recent years. Interestingly, the company also copied the Breyer Old Timer, the Clydesdale Mare, and a couple of Hartland models for other HO vehicles. The owner of the company, Jordan Jackson, passed away in 2015, so his kits are no longer being made, but the family apparently still owns the molds.

Miscellaneous

The Western Horse seems to have been wildly popular with copy cat companies, and not only are there plastic copies, but there are also ceramic, metal, and even wall art copies. I'm sure there are more, but here are some fun examples I've seen or bought over the years.

A Japanese ceramic Western Horse. These come in varying sizes.
Photo from eBay.

A metal Western Pony copy (mane only on one side with this pony)
Photo courtesy of Rachel L.

Embossed Western Horse art, a fun antique store find of mine

In the next and final installment of the Western Horse Shaped objects series, I'll discuss the miscellaneous plastic and metal horse clock knock offs that are out there.

Also, if anyone has any textured tack horses, ponies, or clocks, or Kroll ponies for sale, especially a gold one, please email me at mumtazmahal (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks for reading!

Part four of this series is here.


Sources:

1. Young, Nancy. Breyer Molds and Models: Horses, Riders, and Animals. (Schiffer Publishing Ltd: Atglen, PA), pg. 265.