"De Mostest Hoss That Ever Was"

"The days are long at Belmont.
Speed they never learn.
And it's many a day since Man O' War
Has looped the upper turn."

Man O' War winning the 1920 Belmont Stakes
Thus begins Blood-Horse editor Joseph Estes' poem "Big Red" published in the October 23, 1937, issue of that magazine, an homage to the greatest racehorse of all time. The legend of Man O' War has inspired many such tributes in a variety of forms---literature, art, advertising, brand names, and of particular interest to model horse collectors, sculpture.

Man O' War was born on August Belmont's Nursery Stud farm near Lexington, KY, on March 29, 1917. By top runner and sire Fair Play out of the regally bred mare Mahubah, a daughter of the English Triple Crown winner Rock Sand, Man O' War was recognized early on as a quality horse by his breeder. Belmont reluctantly sold the colt, however, after enlisting in the army at the age of 65 to serve in World War I.

Samuel Riddle famously purchased Man O' War for $5,000 at the 1918 Saratoga yearling sale and raced him in his black and gold Glen Riddle Farm colors. As a 2 year-old, Man O' War captured 9 of his 10 starts with his one loss, a fast-closing second, coming though no fault of his own. (He was turned sideways at the start and was intentionally boxed in at the rail by the other jockeys for most of the race.) He carried 130 pounds, an impost usually reserved for older horses (and rarely even then), 6 times while giving away substantial weight to his rivals and beating them easily by open lengths.

At three, he was sublime and utterly untouchable, winning all 11 of his starts, including the Preakness, Belmont, Withers, Dwyer, Travers, Lawrence Realization, Jockey Club Gold Cup, and a match race against the 1919 Triple Crown winner Sir Barton.

If you read the race charts for Man O' War they all conclude with some variation of "eased final furlong" or "in a canter." Despite never being fully extended, he set three world records, two American records, two track records, and equaled another track record. And he didn't just break records by hundredths of seconds; he shattered them. In the Lawrence Realization, he shaved more than 4 seconds off the world record for 1 5/8th miles, winning by an estimated 100 lengths, both unheard of feats. His record for a 1 1/4 miles in the Travers stood for an unprecedented 42 years. No other horse in history can boast such a resume, especially when you take into account the staggering imposts Man O' War carried. In one race, he carried an astonishing 32 pounds more than his rivals. It's no surprise then that his groom Will Harbut called him "de mostest hoss that ever was."

At stud, Man O' War's brilliance continued. He sired numerous champions including Triple Crown winner War Admiral, as well as American Flag (Belmont, Withers, Dwyer), Crusader (Belmont, JCGC, Suburban), Clyde Van Dusen (Kentucky Derby), Scapa Flow (2 year-old champion), Florence Nightingale (Coaching Club American Oaks), Maid At Arms (Alabama), Edith Cavell (CCAO, Pimlico Cup over males twice), and the champion steeplechasers Battleship and Blockade. Man O' Wars daughters, in addition to being top flight runners, proved to be exceptional brood mares as well. He died at the age of 30 on November 1, 1947, and his funeral was broadcast publicly on the radio. He and several of his best offspring were originally interred at Faraway Farm under a larger than life statue by Herbert Haseltine, but in the early 1970s, the graves and statue were moved to their present location at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Man O' War was first immortalized as a collectible work of sculpture by the Grand Wood Carving company of Chicago sometime in the 1940s, probably after the great horse's death. This model is carved from mahogany, and it should look familiar to Breyer collectors.

Photo courtesy of Ed Alcorn / The Hagen-Renaker On-Line Museum Collection
There is some evidence that Breyer sculptor Chris Hess may have worked for the Grand Wood Carving company before being hired by Breyer, but that is the subject for another post. Suffice it say, Breyer had copied the work of GWC before, and their 1967 traditional scale model of Big Red was most definitely influenced by the GWC piece, right down to the halter. This is one of the earliest variations of the #47 Man O' War with eye-whites and distinctive battleship grey hooves.

Photo courtesy of Kristen Arendt
GWC produced a number of famous racehorses, many of which came on wood bases with name plaques. The idea for the Breyer Presentation Collection may have come from that practice. The Presentation Man O' War is the rarest of the traditional MOWs, made from 1971-1973 only.

The trad MOW was produced from 1967-1995, and not surprisingly, his color varied a bit over the years. The models from the late 1980s into the 1990s have, in my opinion, always best exemplified the "look" of Big Red. They tend to be a vibrant rich red chestnut with little shading.

Photo courtesy of Kristen Arendt
In 1990, Sears offered a very popular set of three glossy racehorses including Man O'War. Only 2000 pieces were made.

Photo courtesy of Penny Lehew, co-author of the Breyer Animal Quick Reference
In spring of 1961, Hagen-Renaker released their Designers Workshop Man O' War sculpted by Maureen Love. Of all of the MOW portraits, hers was the truest to the physique and majesty of the real horse as the photo below will attest. The HR MOW was in production from Spring 1961-Spring 1971 and from Fall 1974-Fall 1975, so he's not an especially rare piece. He is particularly lovely, however, and a must have for all MOW fans.

Monrovia and San Dimas versions, photo courtesy of Ed Alcorn / The Hagen-Renaker On-Line Museum Collection
A photo of Man O' War as a young stallion. I believe this may have been the photo that inspired Maureen Love's sculpture.

Photo courtesy of Thoroughbred Heritage
In 1975, Breyer arranged a lease for plastic production rights of Hagen-Renaker's DW Thoroughbred models, including Man O' War. The #602 Classic Man O' War model ran until 1990. Like his traditional counterpart, he ranged in color from more golden chestnut to deep red chestnut. His face marking also varied. The earliest models have a broken stripe like the model on the left, and the later ones had a star like the model on the right. The star-faced model first appears in the 1988 catalog.

In the late 1980s, American Artists released a series of resin racehorses. Fred Stone sculpted Man O' War for them, and the pose of this model bears a striking resemblance to Fred's famous painting of the horse. I believe 2500 pieces were made.

Photo courtesy of Karen Grimm / The Black Horse Ranch Collection
In 2004, the most recent Man O' War model was produced by Starlite Originals, sculpted by Kitty Cantrell. It was limited to 2500 pieces.

Photo courtesy of Karen Grimm / The Black Horse Ranch Collection
As you may have guessed, I have been a lifelong, die-hard fan of Man O' War. One of my earliest memories is of my dad reading C.W. Anderson horse books to me, and MOW was, rightfully so, the benchmark by which Anderson measured all other horses. So it's only fitting that I painted by my own Man O' War on Carol Williams' incredible Valor resin. While Valor is a mega-popular model, I don't think my guy is exactly collectible other than to me, but how could I not include him?

"We watch the heroes parading,
We wait, and our eyes are dim,
But we never discover another
Like him."

(Estes' entire poem can be found here.)

Ephemera: Hang Tags

What exactly constitutes ephemera? Dictionary.com gives this very apt definition: "items designed to be useful or important for only a short time, especially pamphlets, notices, tickets, etc." In terms of model horse collectibility, that includes things like hang tags, stickers, accessories, original packaging, and catalogs---things that most people threw away or things that were lost because they were small and not integral to the piece. Each of these subjects deserves its own post (and the discussion of boxes in particular may span several blog entries), so this post will begin the subject with a discussion of hang tags.

While a variety of modern models are sold with hang tags, particularly Breyers, vintage hang tags are some of the hardest pieces of ephemera to find. Most buyers removed them from the models to facilitate play or display, and the tags were thrown away or lost over the years. In most cases, regardless of manufacturer, very few vintage hang tags are known to still exist, making them highly desirable to collectors. Most hang tags are made of paper or card stock, but a few were made of less traditional materials. I've included some examples below.

This is Breyer's Robin Hood on a white Fury Prancer with all original accessories and the original paper hang tag. This set dates from the late 1950s.

This Breyer Woodgrain Buffalo is one of about 3 known, all of which are on lamps. This fellow has the original leather and twine "Ranch Craft Originals by Dunning Industries" hang tag. The lamp dates to the mid 1960s.

This Breyer Little Bits Saddlebred is a SR from 1985. The hang tag, which describes Breyer's new partnership with Reeves International, identifies her as one of the first 500 pieces from the SR that were only distributed at the New York Toy Fair. A number of sorrel Saddlebreds were distributed sans hang tags at Breyer events in 1990-1992, making the models with tags more special.

Breyer's Susecion and Le Fire set is only about 10 years old, but they have become hot items amongst newer collectors lately. Sets with the original hang tag are consistently commanding higher prices.

Peter Stone horses rarely come with much in the way of ephemera, making this Chips model pretty unique. He is part of a run of 50 models given to entrants of a Stone show near Chicago in 2006 by way of apology for the show not being a NAN-qualifier as originally advertised.

Hang tags for china models are fairly uncommon regardless of age. This Beswick Welsh Mountain Pony by itself is not rare, but the little paper tag is pretty scarce.

Hagen-Renaker's Nataf is a highly desirable piece both for halter and collectibility showers. Finding one with a hang tag makes it all the more special.

These whimsical pieces by Walker-Renaker are not especially rare, but they are hard to find with all of their flowers and bows intact. The hang tags with the cute names add to their charm and collectibility.

This Rosenthal Small Polo Pony, already a rare piece and an old one (circa 1916), has a hang tag unlike any other I've seen. It's a small gold-colored metal plate that reads "Ertos" that is attached around his right rear leg with a small chain. Not surprisingly, he is always a strong contender in the collectibility show ring.

A close up of the tag.

Not only are they fun and interesting pieces of history, but hang tags can also give a collectibility entry a little extra "oomph" in the show ring. They can be the added edge needed to make a model stand out in a crowd.

Documentation in the Show Ring

When I first became active in the hobby in the late 1980s, pretty much everyone collected Breyers, Hartlands, and/or Hagen-Renakers to some degree, even those people who were primarily interested in customs (known as RRHs back then). Most people therefore had a pretty good idea of which models were rare and why.

Twenty-five years down the line, however, with the explosion in popularity of resins, Peter Stone horses, and contemporary chinas, and with the capability of immediate immersion in a particular facet of the hobby via the internet, it is possible to dive in and specialize right away without necessarily needing to know much about the history of the hobby or one's chosen collecting media.

Because of this, a growing number of newer hobbyists are often unaware of the collectibility aspects of various makes and models. It therefore behooves a collectibility shower to include thorough documentation when showing in that division. Just as in other divisions, it's best not to assume that the judge will be fully familiar with some of the odder things that can crop up, so good documentation is always a plus. Even basic documentation is better than none at all, including information about models that should be easily recognizable as rare and highly collectible, like a vintage Breyer decorator or an HR Bedouin. Lack of documentation can count against you in the show ring.

So when I judge collectibility or make info cards for my own models when I show, I like to see or include the following information:

Model name and production number: Pretty straightforward. If the manufacturer is the least bit obscure (anything other than obvious, really), including that name is always helpful, too.

Date(s) of production: Also relatively straightforward. Some models were made for a span of years but can be pegged individually at a specific year, so elaborating on this fact may make a model stand out from the crowd. For example, the #215 Breyer Dapple Grey Proud Arab Mare models were made from 1971-1988, but the black point variation dates to 1983 only.



Number produced: Including the number of models produced for limited runs is very helpful to both judges and to show holders. Many collectibility classes are split based on those production numbers. For rare vintage pieces that are limited in number because of their age, I like to include a guesstimate on the number of models known to collectors as that is often very relevant. For example, the Breyer Donkey with Red Baskets was made from 1958-1960, but only a couple are known to be in the hands of collectors.



Sculptor: Providing the sculptor’s name isn’t really necessary for OF plastics, but it is something I like to see with chinas, and artist info is a must for vintage CMs and resins.

Provenance: As I discussed in my last post, knowing a model’s origins can add to its collectibility whether it’s a SR made for a certain company or a test run purchased from a well-known collector or just an undocumented oddity purchased from a dealer.

Interesting mold marks, stickers, hang tags, etc: Even if these markings or bits of ephemera seem obvious, mentioning them in one's documentation provides an opportunity to expand on what makes them special.

Source Citation: While not strictly necessary for the show ring, citing one's sources is a nice touch.

Here's an example of a fairly simple collectibility card for the Breyer Woodgrain Poodle with a rare gold foil sticker.



Here's a more elaborate set up for the Breyer Indian Chief on a Music Box Prancer. The upright stand not only protects the delicate and rare paper headdress, but it also makes that item an unmistakable feature of the set.



Showers can add a bit of personal flair to their collectibility cards if they so desire, but style shouldn't distract from the facts or the model. Concise and legible will go a long way with a judge. Showers should also keep size constraints for documentation in mind. Most show holders will specify what they prefer in their show packet.

Next time---ephemera---all the fun bits and bobs that make up a good collectibility entry!

The Importance of Provenance

What is provenance? Anyone who has watched Antiques Roadshow or Time Team or even Pawn Stars has probably heard the show hosts, archaeologists, or appraisers discussing provenance and why it’s important or relevant to a particular piece.

Websters defines provenance as "1: origin, source," or "2: the history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or literature."

That is straightforward enough if you’re dealing with artifacts found in situ at a dig or important works of art. In terms of collectibles though, provenance has also come to include the bits of ephemera associated with a piece, like sales receipts, photos, old ads, stickers, hang tags, original packaging, etc. For model horse collectors, provenance is often important in all of these senses---where a model was found, relevant hobby ownership, and documentation are often key.


Case Study #1: The Curious Incident of the 4-Socked Lady Phases

Lady Phase has been a collectors’ favorite since the mold was first sold in 1976. For the original release, she was sculpted and painted as a portrait of the real Quarter Horse mare owned by country singer Lynn Anderson. As with many Breyers, the sorrel mare with 3 white feet and a pale muzzle varied a bit during her nine years in production. Most Lady Phase models are reddish-chestnut, but some of the earlier pieces have a browner cast, and they occasionally shows up with two socks or four instead of the usual three.

With that in mind, one of the Lady Phases pictured below is a test run and one of them is an interesting variation. Can you tell which?





This is where provenance becomes important. These mares are pretty similar---they both have four socks and both fall within the range of sorrel coloring that is typical for Lady Phase models. Both mares were purchased on eBay. But one mare set me back nearly $400 (and that was more than 10 years ago before the vintage market really took off) and the other cost only $30 (and that was as part of a lot of 8 horses). Why the huge difference? Because the first mare is the original test run for the Lady Phase model from the collection of former Breyer designer and painter William Ciofani, and happily, I have the paper trail to back it up.

I purchased her from a well-known and well-respected hobbyist who dispersed the Ciofani collection, and I have saved my correspondence with the seller. Without it, my test run is just a neat mare with a somewhat unusual paintjob. She has four socks instead of three, and her nose has been fully painted grey instead of being left a mix of chestnut and bare plastic with a hint of darker color over the nostrils like so many Lady Phases. Her paintjob is neater and crisper than most other Lady Phase models as well which does set her apart, but the best defining characteristic, other than the documentation from the seller, is the little half moon of white on her forehead. It almost looks like a scrape rather than an intentional marking, but the real mare did have the same funny little occluded star.



Whether you collect to show or whether you collect just for the enjoyment it brings you, provenance is important. It can break a tie in the show ring, and it also preserves the history of a piece which can make all the difference in the sales ring.

Next time, more test runs and variations!

Collectibility Reference Materials: Chinas

Now that the madness of Breyerfest is over, it's back to blogging! Here is the promised second half of my reference materials post.

Hagen-Renaker
The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Hagen-Renaker is a classic insurance guide for Hagen-Renakers. Written by a long time collector, it is a thorough compendium of the pieces made by HR, including the Designers Workshop horses, dogs, cats, and other animals, the Miniatures line, the Little Horribles, the Disney pieces, the early decorative ware (plates, bells, shadow boxes, etc), and more, as well as pieces produced by HR offshoot companies like Freeman-McFarlin, Loza Electrica, Walker-Renaker, Made With Love, etc. Each section details the specifics about various molds, such as production dates, model numbers, colors, and detail variations. The photos are in black and white and the values are somewhat out of date, but it’s a very complete resource in terms of identifying pieces. (There is a newer edition from 2003 that has a section of color photos. The book shown in the post below is from 1999.)

Hagen-Renaker Pottery: Horses and Other Figurines by Nancy Kelly is a must-have for collectors interested in the history of HR and its artists. This book truly tells the story of HR---its beginning, it various factory locations, its spin-off companies, and the biographies of the people involved. Most importantly and interestingly, it devotes a number of chapters to the artists and designers, often including memories of their time with HR in their own words. It’s a terrific read full of fascinating anecdotes, color pictures, and wonderful insight into the people of HR.

Hagen-Renaker Through the Years, also by Nancy Kelly, is a follow-up book to the above with further information about the company, its rivals and copyists, and many more photos of unusual and test run pieces. I don’t have a copy of this book myself, but having had a chance to peruse another collector’s copy, if you enjoyed HR: H&OF, you will love this one, too.


Beswick
The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Beswick Animals (later editions are titled Beswick Animals: A Charlton Standard Catalogue) is the best guide available to collectors of Beswick horses. It appears to be updated every few years, and like other Charlton guides, it presents a catalog of the figures produced by Beswick with production date information, notes on rare colors, and general estimates of value.


Royal Worcester
Once again, Charlton is my go-to source with their Charlton Standard Guide of Royal Worcester Figurines. A few years ago, they broke the guide into two volumes, one for figures and one for animals, so keep that in mind if you are not buying the most recent edition.

Other Companies
Finding reference books for other companies, especially from non-English speaking counties, can be tricky. Here are a few I’ve found, though I don’t yet own them.

Rosenthal Porcelain Figurines by Ann Banduhn
http://www.coquettebreeze.com/Rosenthal-Porcelain-Figurines.html

Nymphenburg Porcelain
http://www.amazon.com/Nymphenburg-Porcelain/dp/3475525704

Royal Copenhagen Porcelain: Animals and Figurines
http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Copenhagen-Porcelain-Animals-Figurines/dp/0764315722/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313083326&sr=1-3

Allach Porcelain 1936-1945 (Volume 2 has the animal figurines)
http://www.amazon.com/Allach-Porcelain-1936-1945-Historical-Miscellaneous/dp/0764335316/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313083449&sr=1-2


Online Resources
Ed Alcorn has amassed a phenomenal Hagen-Renaker collection, much of which can be seen on his Hagen-Renaker Museum website. The site is a terrific resource for color photos of hundreds of pieces, including images of the items from Maureen Love’s estate sold on ebay several years ago.

http://hagenrenakerhorses.com/


Audrey Falconer has a website devoted to Rosenthal figurines, including a page with a number of pictures of the horses:

http://www.audreyfalconer.com/horse.html


Kaiser, Hutschenreuther, Meissen, Albany Fine China, Hereford, and Boehm also produce or have produced porcelain horse figurines that are collected by many chinaheads in the hobby. Reference books for some of these companies exist, but they are often geared toward tableware, so buyer beware. I have found that the collectors on the Breakables Yahoo Group are a terrific source of information for some of these companies, especially the more obscure ones:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/breakables/

Collectibility Reference Materials: Plastics

Learning about collectibility can be a daunting prospect, especially to new collectors. The sheer volume of information to digest about mold marks, variations, special runs, stickers, and sundry other minutiae can be overwhelming. Thankfully, a number of terrific resources are available to collectors.



Breyer
The most important book for Breyer collectors wishing to learn more about Breyer collectibility is Nancy Young's Breyer Molds and Models. Her last edition only covers production from 1950 through 1997, but no other book has the sheer volume of detail. Nancy covers every possible variation of mold, color, and markings, as well as interesting trivia on the origins and inspirations for many pieces. She discusses not only the horses, but also the animals, riders (both hard plastic and pose-able), dealer and collector catalogs, tack, stickers, hang tags, lamps, clocks, night lights, music boxes, and much more. It is a treasure trove of fascinating information and a must-read for any collectibility fan. (The values listed can be ignored as Nancy's intention was essentially to write a Breyer encyclopedia rather than a price guide.) Nancy's book is, alas, out of print, but it can be found on eBay regularly for anywhere from $20-50. Amazon reseller usually want at least $100 or more.

The Breyer Animal Collector's Guide, originally published by Felicia Browell and now updated by Kelly Weimer and Kelly Kesicki, makes an excellent companion guide to Nancy's encyclopedic tome. The guide offers color pictures of almost every Breyer model produced including many oddities, and it offers values based on recent average selling prices. It is updated and reissued every few years with the latest one having been published in 2008. It's a very handy guide for keeping track of the multitude of new models that are released every year, and a new edition is in the works. This book can be purchased directly from the Breyer website.

In this age of smart phones and lap tops, online resources can be handy for on-the-go references as well. Identify Your Breyer and Ponylagoon are the two best sites, with IDYB being the most complete.


Hartlands
Gail Fitch has been researching and writing about Hartlands for nearly 30 years, and her books on the subject reflect her dedication. Hartland Horses and Dogs and Hartland Horsemen are her most recent books, and both cover Hartland pieces from the 1940s until 2000.

HH&D covers the models that were meant to represent various breeds that were never issued with riders. Gail includes the many sizes, from the Regals to the Tinymites and everything in between. She also includes the horses from the various different companies that produced Hartlands, such as Durant, Stevens, and Paola Groeber's Hartland Collectibles. (The book does not include the models produced in the 2000s by Sheryl Leisure.)

HH, as the title suggests, covers the horse and rider sets produced by Hartland, the standing gunfighters, their miscellaneous accessories (hats, guns, etc), as well as the horse molds intended for riders that were occasionally produced without them.

Both books include information about packaging, paper ephemera, stickers, and the like, and both have color photos of nearly everything Hartland has produced, including oddities. They are available for purchase on Gail's website.


Peter Stone Horses
Though the Peter Stone company has only been making models in earnest since 1997, literally thousands of different models have already been issued. The Stone company started out with regular production runs, but these days, they specialize in small editions and one-of-a-kind models, making it difficult to keep track of the many, many different horses that have been produced. At least one book, the Illustrated Value Guide to Peter Stone Horses, has attempted to do just that, but no recent editions have been published. The best way to learn about Stone Horses is via the Stone Horse Reference web site maintained by Barb Spohr.


Next installment...china horses!

What is collectibility and why should we care?

Collectibility as a stand-alone division is a fairly new concept in the hobby. When I first started live showing in 1991, halter classes were only split into OF and RRH (aka customs). Resins were almost unknown, and everything OF was fair game in the OF classes---Breyers, Hartlands, Hagen-Renakers, Beswicks, etc. Most people showed only Breyers, with Hartlands and especially chinas being a rarity. Judging for OFs was a mix of breed standards and rarity, and which was weighted more depended entirely on the judge. For example, I used to win regularly with the Monrovia HRs my grandmother gave me because they were both well-conformed as well as rare (relatively speaking at that time, anyway). Furthermore, it was not unusual to see a horse like a Hartland Regal Saddlebred or a Florentine 5-Gaiter win a gaited class despite anatomical abnormalities or an unrealistic color because they were the rarest models on the table. Halter judging was hugely subjective to say the least.


(The Regal Hartland ASB puts the fun in funky, but she's not quite what most Saddlebred fanciers would consider well-conformed.)

It was not until the late 1990s that judging OFs based on the ABCs (anatomy, biomechanics/breed standard, and conformation) as well as collectibility began to fall out of favor. Customs, resins, and chinas were judged by the ABCs, so following suit in OF plastic halter was a logical continuation of the trend. At NAN in 1998 and 1999, a few token collectibility classes were added to the OF Plastic division to deal with decorators and woodgrains. But it was not until 2001 that OF plastic collectibility was recognized as a necessary division in its own right with OF china collectibility following the next year in 2002. Since then, both divisions have grown exponentially, and most live shows these days offer halter and collectibility divisions split out between Breyers, Stones, and chinas (and occasionally Hartlands, too).

So that said, how is collectibility judged in the hobby and what makes a model collectible?

Some might argue that collectibility can be equated with the biggest price tag or the highest perceived value, and while that is sometimes the case, it just as often isn’t true. I personally usually equate collectibility with rarity. That is my primary criterion when judging. I also factor in age, desirability, and to a lesser degree, condition.

Rarity is pretty much self-explanatory. Models made in limited numbers are hard to find, old or new. The more limited, the better usually. However, because one-of-a-kind models are surprisingly easy to acquire these days, a OOAK model is not necessarily better or more rare (in terms of perception) than a model of which 2 or 3 or even 10 examples are known.

Age is important because while some models were not necessarily made in small numbers, they may have been made 40 or 50 years ago and few have survived to make it into collectors' hands. Newer rare models can often be acquired with a little patience and a willingness to pay the going rate. Older rare models are often much harder to acquire because few are known, and those that are known are often in "black hole" collections. Old and rare usually trumps new and rare.

Desirability can definitely play a role in collectibility as well. Certain molds and models have more cachet than others, like vintage decorators, for example. Some models even obtain a sort of legendary status because of their rarity and interesting history, such as the wedgewood Longhorn or the $13,500 test run palomino Alborozo.

Condition is my last and least important consideration for several reasons. First, most showers these days know to bring only their best models, and those with noticeable scratches or dings usually remain at home, so condition is rarely an issue. Secondly, the chances of condition being the tie-breaker in collectibility are pretty slim. There are almost always more important factors that will sort the entries out (i.e. the three criteria discussed above). And thirdly, many models that show in collectibility are old, some more than 50 years old, and I am more than willing to forgive a few minor condition issues if the piece is clearly superior to what else is on the table. The same can be applicable to newer rare models. Ear tip rubs or hoof rubs are of little importance in the grand scheme of things.

So all that having been said, the point of the collectibility division is to celebrate those unique models that do not fit into the usual breed classes but that are still highly desirable to many collectors. Things like decorators, woodgrains, lamps, clocks, night lights, horse and rider sets, test runs, and OOAKs are typical collectibility entries as well as models with original ephemera such as boxes, hang tags, and stickers.

Becoming a good judge of collectibility requires immersion in the subject and a fascination with the history and minutiae of the companies and models involved. Thankfully, model horse hobbyists have written a number of excellent reference books on the various makes available. I'll make my recommended reading list the subject of my next post.