Breyer models have been featured on lamps made by a variety of companies over the years, but probably the best known and most ubiquitous are the Ranchcraft lamps made by Dunning Industries of Greensboro, North Carolina. Dunning used both woodgrain and realistically painted models on their lamps, but the woodgrains seem to be more numerous. I had planned to tackle the subject of Breyer lamps in chronological order since I sort of accidentally started out at the beginning with Marks Manufacturing lamps, but as I was researching Dunning Industries in recent weeks, I realized that I needed to tell this story before I tackle the rest.
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| A typical woodgrain Dunning lamp with the original burlap shade (photo by Amanda Reed) |
The primary reason for this is Dunning's history and dates of operation. Like many other collectors, I assumed that Dunning started business sometime in the 1950s and likely produced their lamps into the early 1970s. Collectors have speculated that in addition to the typical woodgrain lamps, Dunning may have also made the Davy Crockett and Lucky Ranger lamps on plaster bases that date to the mid-1950s (the subject of my next post) and that they may also have made the night lights. As lovely as it would be to wrap up a couple of Breyer mysteries so neatly, I now have conclusive evidence that neither of those suppositions can be true. To wit, Dunning Industries didn't exist until 1964.
The story begins with John Miles Dunning III, age 33, a resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, who, in his capacity as "a manufacturer's representative for several furniture companies," attended a furniture expo in Chicago in 1964. [1] While there, it occurred to him that there was a gap in the market for floor and table lamps, and on his long drive home, he stopped in hardware stores and five-and-dimes in the small towns along his route, buying "kerosene lanterns, horseshoes, the old fashion type of water pumps, miniature coin banks, barrels, and antique jugs and bottles" to turn into lamp bases. [2] He and his wife then cannibalized electrical parts from old lamps and literally began their new business venture on their kitchen table.
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| John Dunning [3] |
Dunning then took samples of his wares to a regional furniture market, and within three days, he had over $20,000 in orders. (That's the equivalent of a little over $215,000 in 2026.) The furniture companies he worked for all subsequently fired him when they realized he was their new competition. Dunning took it in stride, and with the help of his wife and next door neighbor (who became the company vice president), he turned Dunning Industries into the world's largest manufacturer of wood lamps in just four years. [4]
Dunning had taken shop classes in high
school and had had a summer job demonstrating how to use woodworking tools
for Sears, so his company produced all of the wood components for their
lamps in-house. The Dunning "factory" moved from the family's kitchen table to a
tavern basement to a series of multiple buildings before finally
getting its own purpose-built plant in 1969. By this time, Dunning had
started traveling to Europe to find miscellaneous statues, architectural
sculpture bits, and figurines that he could cast copies of in wood-like
composition to use for his lamps, as mirror frames, wall decor, and
more. [5]
In October of 1969, only five years after starting the
business, Dunning sold the company to American Interiors, Inc, of
Danville, Virginia. [6] He stayed on as chairman for another year before
leaving to start a new company, Dunning Limited, that made wooden end
tables and other furniture. The company was still in business as late as 1980. John Dunning retired at some point but apparently continued to enjoy woodworking. He passed away April 18, 2002. [7]
Meanwhile, Dunning Industries, his original lamp company, continued on under new leadership until June 1983 when a catastrophic warehouse fire brought the business to a screeching halt. The fire marshal determined that the cause of the fire was arson, and while the company owner said he planned to move the company to Lexington, Kentucky, by February 1984, the employees had been let go and all of the surviving factory machinery had been listed for sale. [8]
So now that we know Dunning Industries wasn't founded until 1964, we can safely conclude that they can't possibly have made any of the 1950s Breyer lamps. Likewise, given that some Breyer night lights clearly date to the 1950s (the Proud Arabian Mare night lights, for example), we can rule out Dunning as the source of those as well.
I don't know when Dunning first ordered Breyer models for his lamps, but I can't help but wonder if he saw some woodgrain models while in Chicago in 1964. Given that a few factory-painted-over-decorators have appeared on Dunning lamps, I would guess they were available by 1965 or so (the decorator line having been discontinued in 1964). Also, the woodgrain Brahma model was last available as a regular run in 1965. Provided Dunning didn't special order any after the fact, we know those lamps likely date to Dunning's second year of business (maybe even the first). (That might also explain why the Brahma lamps are fairly uncommon.)
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| Bay Running Mare and Foal lamp with original leather Dunning hang tag (photo by Danielle Cutshall) |
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| The foal on Danielle's lamp is chalky bay factory painted over a decorator (because the decorators sold poorly and were thus repurposed) |
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| My own chalky Running Foal lamp painted over gold charm (Note the interesting round bases on both of these!) (Wellman collection) |
Occasionally, 1970s oil crisis era chalky models turn up on Dunning lamps as well,
specifically Donkeys, leading me to think that Dunning was still
ordering Breyers at least as late as 1973 or 1974. They were for sure still available as late as 1972 based on this Miller Stockman ad (scroll down) on the excellent Breyer Horse Reference site. That said, given that we don't see models from the mid- to late-1970s on Dunning lamps, I suspect that that was likely the tail end of the association between the two companies.
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| A pair of chalky Donkey lamps my mom and I found. They are green plastic underneath. (Wellman collection) |
So it seems likely that Dunning made lamps featuring Breyer models for only about ten years, roughly 1964-1974, give or take. But they certainly made them in large numbers and with quite a variety of horses and animals, so happily for collectors, many of them are quite affordable. The most easily found lamps feature woodgrain Fighting Stallions, woodgrain Family Arabian Foals, and woodgrain Running Mares and Foals.
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Woodgrain Fighting Stallion lamp showing |
Many of the woodgrain models on lamps are unusually dark brown, much darker then the average non-lamp woodgrains. Dunning may have specially requested the color to match the lamp bases. Or, since some of the woodgrain lamps were definitely ordered after the regular run woodgrains were discontinued, the darker color may be the result of later requests. For example, the woodgrain Running Mare and Foal were made from 1963-1965, but the Miller Stockman ad linked above shows that they were available on lamps from Dunning in 1972. The woodgrain Fighting Stallion, Running Mare and Foal lamps, and Running Foal wall sconce lamps are often darker toned.
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| This dark woodgrain Fighting Stallion was once on a lamp (Wellman collection) |
Some of the more common lamps I mentioned above also come in realistic colors that are often a bit harder to find. The Family Arabian Foal lamps can be found in matte palomino...
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| (Wellman collection) |
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| (Photo by Des Corbett) |
The Running Mare and Running Foal lamps are pretty easily found in woodgrain or bay, but they also come in a couple of fun variations that are harder to find. I've seen a lamp featuring a bay mare and woodgrain foal as well as an alabaster mare and smoke foal (and possibly vice versa, too). They can also occasionally be found in glossy dapple grey. My sister and I are lucky enough to each own an example of this pretty lamp.
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| (Wellman collection) |
While most Dunning lamps have rectangular bases about an inch thick with a routed bevel along the top edge, other base shapes and styles have been found. As we saw above, some of the Running Mares and Running Foals came on oval, unbeveled bases. This Rearing Stallion lamp has a simple rectangular base with no flourishes.
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| (Photo by Katie Foley) |
Several more elaborate bases are also known, and they all seem to be quite scarce. This sweet lamp features two woodgrain Shetlands on a tall, 2-part oval base. Woodgrain Quarter Horse Geldings and Family Arabian Stallions have also been seen on these bases.
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| (Photo by Des Corbett) |
In addition to table lamps, Dunning also made Breyer sconce lamps that featured woodgrain Running Foals.
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| Sconce lamp with shade (Photo by Sande Schneider) |
A few other horse molds occasionally turn up lamps like the bay Clydesdale Stallion and woodgrain Family Arabian Mare. The Grazing Mare and Foal can also be found, but rarely. I've seen a few examples of matte palomino and matte bay...
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| (Photo by Debbie Thomas) |
...which brings me to the subject of some of the most rare and desirable Dunning lamps. A handful of models that were not released as glossy regular runs can be found in glossy on Dunning lamps. Some of them have decorative rope trim around the base, such as this glossy palomino Grazing Mare and Foal lamp. All of the glossy lamps are quite scarce.
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| (Wellman collection) |
The glossy smoke Belgian is probably the most desirable of the Dunning Horse lamps.
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| (Photo by Rachel Bergman) |
At least three animal molds were also glossed for Dunning lamps, the Longhorn, the Buffalo, and the Elephant. (We do own an example of the latter, but I don't have a photo of it yet. It's on the ever-growing to-do list!)
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| Glossy Longhorn lamp (Wellman collection) |
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| Glossy Buffalo lamp (Wellman collection) |
While these glossy animal lamps are very rare, Dunning happily offered a variety of other more common animal molds on lamps, both in woodgrain and in realistic colors.
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| Woodgrain Longhorn lamp with original shade and hang tag (Photo by Stephanie Blaylock) |
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| Bighorn ram lamp (Wellman collection) |
And lastly, we come to two of the rarest Dunning lamps, the woodgrain Hereford and woodgrain Buffalo. Unlike the other woodgrains found on Dunning lamps, neither the Hereford nor the Buffalo were ever offered in woodgrain as regular runs. They were special orders by Dunning and are usually only found on lamps. I am aware of two freestanding woodgrain Herefords, one with holes drilled in the bottom of his feet to go on a lamp. I don't know of any freestanding woodgrain Buffalo.
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| (Wellman collection) |
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| A pair of woodgrain Buffalo lamps (Wellman collection) |
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| A typical leather hang tag (Wellman collection) |
A few of them still have stickers as well declaring that the bases are made of solid oak. Here's one on the base of our matte Elephant lamp.
My sister and I own many Dunning lamps, more than 45 at last count, and often in duplicate or even in triplicate. (When you keep finding cheap Donkey lamps at antique malls, you buy all 4 of them. I don't make the rules.) So that said, I am rather behind in photographing our collection. I am hoping to remedy that to some degree at the holidays and maybe see how many of our lamp models have USA stamps versus those that don't. I suspect Dunning lamps featuring Breyers were probably being phased out in the early 1970s, but I would be curious to have some more solid data on that.
In the meantime, I thought it might be handy to compile a list of known Dunning lamps. If I've forgotten any, please feel free to comment below, and I'll update the list. Also, if you have a photo of what you think is a Dunning lamp that I've neglected to mention here, please feel free to email a photo to me at mumtazmahal@gmail.com
Bear and Cub: Usually brown, at least one known with brown mama and black cub
Bighorn Ram: Brown
Brahma: Woodgrain
Buffalo: Matte brown, glossy brown, woodgrain
Clydesdale Stallion: Bay
Donkey: Grey (often chalky)
Elephant: Matte grey, glossy grey
Family Arabian Foal: Matte palomino, woodgrain
Family Arabian Mare: Woodgrain
Family Arabian Stallion: Woodgrain
Fighting Stallion: Matte bay (at least one chalky), glossy palomino, woodgrain
Grazing Mare and Foal: Matte bay, matte palomino, glossy palomino
Hereford: Woodgrain
Longhorn: Matte tan, glossy tan, woodgrain
Quarter Horse Gelding: Woodgrain
Rearing Stallion: Matte bay, matte palomino
Running Mare and Foal: Matte bay (foals sometimes chalky), woodgrain, bay and woodgrain combo, alabaster and smoke combo, glossy dapple grey
Running Foal: Matte bay (sometimes chalky), woodgrain (as sconce)
Shetland: Woodgrain (pair)
Thank you to everyone who contributed photos to this post! I plan to cover the rest of the lamps by known manufacturers in the coming weeks, and then I'll write a catch-all post for the mysteries that do not appear to be aftermarket. As always, thanks for reading!
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Works Cited:
1) Conrad Paysour, "Old Gadgets Light Up Huge Lamp Business," Greensboro Daily News, May 7, 1967, 59.
2) Ibid.
3) Ibid.
4) Conrad Paysour, "Dunning Industries to Build New Plant on I-85," Greensboro Daily News, March 19, 1969, 13.
5) Eleanor Kennedy, "Dunning Makes it Lightweight," Greensboro Daily News, March 27, 1969, 14.
6) Ellen Scarborough, "He Changes Basic Ideas into Money," The Charlotte Observer, October 22, 1972, 71.
7) Obituaries, News and Record, April 19, 2002, 21.
8) Staff, "Detectives: Building Set On Fire," Greensboro Daily News, June 17, 1983, 3.
