Misty of Chincoteague and the 100th Anniversary of Pony Penning Day

Today, Wednesday, July 30th, happens to be the 100th anniversary of Pony Penning, the annual round up of wild ponies on Assateague Island and their swim across the narrow channel to Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia. The round up and subsequent auction of some of the ponies are undertaken to help control the population size of the Assateague herd, and the auction benefits the local volunteer fire brigade. So this feels like an excellent day to celebrate Misty, the most famous Chincoteague Pony of all time.

Misty and Marguerite Henry, photo from mistysheaven.com

If you were a horse crazy kid like me, you probably read every horse book you could get your hands on. Literary equines like the Black Stallion, Sham, Phantom, Harlequin Hullabaloo, Mokey, and the Crumb fired my imagination, and I have a soft spot for the many model horses inspired by my childhood storybook favorites. Not surprisingly, Marguerite Henry's horse stories were in regular rotation on my reading list.

Misty of Chincoteague is probably the best-known and most-beloved of Henry's books. First published in 1947, it tells the story of Paul and Maureen Beebe, orphaned siblings who are raised by their grandparents on Chincoteague Island. Paul is determined to capture the elusive mare The Phantom in the upcoming Pony Penning Days event. Despite a few hiccups and set-backs, Paul does manage to round up The Phantom, and he and Maureen are eventually able to buy her and the new filly at her side, a palomino tobiano they name Misty. In truth, the book is more about The Phantom and Paul's attempts to train her than it is about Misty. Ultimately, the children release The Phantom back to her wild herd when they realize she's unhappy in captivity, but Misty remains with the Beebes.

The real Misty was actually born on Chincoteague in 1946 at the Beebe's pony farm. Marguerite Henry visited Chincoteague that same year for Pony Penning hoping to find inspiration for a new book. She fell in love with a young Misty and convinced Grandpa Beebe to sell the pony to her. When Misty was weaned, she was shipped to Marguerite's home in Illinois where she lived for 10 years. Misty eventually returned to Chincoteague and had three foals, Phantom Wings, Wisp O' Mist, and Stormy. Misty lived out her life visiting with the thousands of fans who came to see her and her offspring. You can read all about Misty, her descendants, and the people who cared for her on the wonderful Misty's Heaven website. 

Marguerite's book about Misty was an immediate success and won a number of literary awards. In 1961, a movie based on the book was released to great acclaim. The book, the sequels to the book (Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague and Stormy, Misty's Foal), the movie, and the many promotional tours that Henry undertook with the real pony and some of her relatives, cemented Misty's place in the pantheon of famous literary horses. Not surprisingly, due to this popularity, a Breyer model of Misty has remained in production in one form or another since its debut in 1972.  

Misty's transition from the printed page to a three dimensional plastic model was not a seamless one however. The real Misty was described as having a map of the United States on one side and a blaze shaped like the state of Virginia. Breyer worked with Marguerite to develop the model and would have had access to photos of the real pony as well as the illustrations in the book. So it's a bit of a mystery as to why Breyer's first attempts at duplicating Misty's pinto pattern were so off the mark. Several test runs with different patterns can seen in the Breyer catalogs in the early 1970s. Some of them appear to have been airbrushed free-hand with no mask, and none of them quite match the first production models.

A few of the oddball test models have made it into the hands of collectors. Fellow blogger Andrea Gurdon owned this unique glossy Misty. I suspect she was airbrushed freehand without a mask, and the edges of the pattern and the tendrils of the mane were neatened up with acetone at the factory. 

 
And longtime collector Sara R. owns this lovely free-hand airbrushed example.

  

The first models that went into production in 1972 were different even than the tests in the catalogs. They are termed "4-eyed" Mistys by collectors because of the spots around each eye, one brown and one white, that sort of resemble spectacles. The pattern on both sides is not especially realistic, and it doesn't really look anything like that of the real pony. Most 4-eyed Mistys are glossy.

Misty was originally sold individually or in a cute carrying case with a softbound copy of the book that inspired the model. The model pictured on the box is yet another test.

Not surprisingly, Marguerite Henry did not approve of the pattern and asked Breyer to change it. The second version of Misty, the "3-eyed" Misty, was nearly identical to the first version, but the pattern on the left side of the face no longer created a circle around the eye. These models are typically matte or semi-glossy.

Marguerite was still not satisfied, and Breyer once again had to re-do the pattern. By 1973, the now-familiar Misty pattern was approved, and it has been in production ever since.

Misty's palomino color has varied hugely over the years, from a rich, nearly chestnut, honey shade to bright lemony yellow to a pale creamy gold, and all of the shades in between.

 

From the get-go, Misty was available as part of the gift set pictured above (made 1972-1981) and individually. (Her foal Stormy was added to the Breyer line up in 1977.)

 

 

During the oil crisis in the 1970s, a few chalky Misty models were made. I have seen both basecoat and chalky plastic examples, but both versions are exceedingly rare. The basecoat chalky Mistys are probably the rarest and most desirable of all of the regular run chalkies made. Collector Tina D. recently found this spectacular example at an estate sale.

 

 

Misty has been sold in several other gift sets over the years such as this one with foals Stormy and Sea Star. It was offered initially in the 1980 JC Penney's catalog and then as a regular run set from 1983-1985. 

Photo from https://www.breyervalueguide.com/

In 1984, an adorable flocked version of Misty and Stormy was offered through the Sears holiday catalog. 

In 1992, the JC Penney holiday catalog offered an unusual Misty in "cold cast porcelain" which is not porcelain at all---it's just resin mixed with porcelain dust. (True porcelain is clay that has to be fired in a kiln to harden and hold a rigid shape. Resin is essentially a type of liquified plastic with various additive powders (i.e. porcelain dust, bronze filings, etc) that solidifies on its own when mixed correctly.) Only 1500 of these models were made, and a number of them broke in shipping. In recent years, many collectors have found that the paint on their cold cast Mistys is flaking off, likely because the resin bodies were not properly scrubbed to remove mold release and/or were not primered before painting. Interestingly, the catalog page shows a model with a face marking that is pretty true to that of the real pony, while the models that actually shipped have the usual round pinto spot around the eye. Most are a yellowy-palomino shade.

The following year, in a joint project with Hagen-Renaker, Breyer offered a true ceramic (fired and glazed earthenware) Misty model. The Performing Misty was made in 1993 only at Hagen-Renaker's factory in San Dimas, CA, and distributed by Breyer. The first examples were shipped attached to their stools, but due to significant breakage issues, Hagen-Renaker quickly switched to shipping the Mistys separate from their stools.

Photo from eBay

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Breyer offered Misty as a regular run, sometimes with her book and/or with her foal Stormy. A few special runs of similar sets were offered through various catalogs and retailers, but the models were no different than the regular versions. 

As part of the Vintage Club in 2020, Breyer produced a miniature version of Misty along with her foal Stormy. Like the Performing Misty, this small plastic version of Misty has a Hagen-Renaker tie-in. This Misty was issued on the Stablemate G1 Quarter Horse Mare mold, a model that was originally sculpted by Maureen Love as the Mini Head Down Horse for Hagen-Renaker. Stormy was issued on the newer G3 Standing Foal mold sculpted by Jane Lunger. Only 500 sets were made, and Misty sports a tiny retro blue ribbon sticker.

The year 2022 marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Misty of Chincoteague, and Breyer celebrated by releasing a new gift set featuring Misty as a foal along with her dam, The Phantom. This Misty model is Breyer's most accurate rendering of her pinto pattern.

Photo by Breyer

Breyer has been associated with Misty of Chincoteague for more than 50 years, and the company has long been a supporter of the Misty of Chincoteague Foundation, an advocacy group that promotes literacy, reading, and the preservation of the places that Misty called home. Every year, part of the proceeds of the BreyerFest auction go to the foundation to help keep Misty's legacy alive. Breyer has also helped support the Museum of Chincoteague Island which successfully raised money through donations by horse lovers to buy the Beebe Ranch in 2023 to save it from developers. 

It's a testament to Marguerite Henry's genius that the story of Misty still sparks the imagination of horse lovers, both young and old, all these decades later. What young horse-obsessed child doesn't dream of gentling a wild pony of their own and having madcap adventures? I know I certainly did. One of these years, I plan to make the trip to Chincoteague to see the famous pony swim and to visit all of the important places Misty and her offspring called home. And of course, I will definitely bring a Misty model along with me!

There and Back Again: A BreyerFesters Tale

BreyerFest #36 is in the books, and as always, it was wonderful to get away to horse country with my family and to see so many of our friends. My sister and I spent several months before BF working on our preparations for the event, and as fun as it was, I am relieved to be home with no immediate obligations or deadlines. I am really looking forward to putting my feet up (metaphorically) and working on some fun projects for myself that have been on the back burner due to lack of time. (Not that the projects I have been doing for the past 4 or 5 months haven't been fun---they've actually been really inspiring---so I'm thrilled to have a chance to put that creative mojo to work.)

Anyhoo, for me, BreyerFest felt like it started the week before I left because it turned out to be pretty epic mail-wise. I received a box of trade goodies I'd eagerly been anticipating, especially this lovely Vintage Club In-Between Mare. I just need to find the bay now, and I'll have the complete VC trio. 

As if that weren't enough, my Breyer club mail came in all at once, including the Vintage Club Mustang Family (another trade), my Premier Club Cosimo, and my Stablemate Club Spencer. 

Hooray for getting the color I most wanted!

Cosimo is stunning! I need more!

As if the above models weren't awesome enough, I also scored a green Breyer Money Manager on eBay which arrived that same week. This made up quite nicely for me not having much to spend at BF this year although I did find some fun stuff for cheap. But more on that later. 

As usual, I flew down to Georgia a few days early to meet up with my family and to finalize our BreyerFest live show string. My sister Sarah does a lot of the prep work ahead of time since she lives down there, and she also helps me by photographing models for this blog and other projects. So I was really excited to be able to gift her a box full of thank yous for her many hours of hard work when I arrived. It took all of my willpower to keep this particular pair a secret! 

We hit the road for Lexington on Wednesday morning and made good time, arriving at our hotel late in the afternoon. One of the many painted horses that dot the Lexington area stands right outside the front door of our hotel, so we took the obligatory selfie.

The open show this year was two days, Thursday and Friday, so that unfortunately nixed our plans for Breakables as well as for getting any appreciable amount of sleep. Nonetheless, with the aid of coffee and sugar, we survived two long (freezing cold, like Rupp-Arena-during-NAN cold) days showing and were happy to do well both days. 

In particular, as giant nerds for vintage models and oddities, we really enjoy the collectors classes that kick off the show first thing both mornings. On Thursday, I was thrilled to win second place with my mini collectors class.

On Friday, Sarah and I both set up collectors classes for the main collectibility day---she did theme while I did variety. Collectors classes have long been a live showing tradition though they are sadly less common these days. They are meant to showcase a collector's rarest and most desirable models, and as Sarah and I strive for old, rare, and weird in our collections, we have loved putting together collectors classes for shows since we started showing in the early 1990s. Sarah and I both won second in our respective divisions. 

Sarah's Fury Prancer-themed set-up

My vintage variety set-up

We managed a couple of hours of shopping and looking around at the CHIN on Wednesday and Thursday night, but by Friday night after two very long days that started at 4:00am, we just ordered pizza and face-planted into bed. 

Saturday is always our park day, so we slept in some before heading over to the KHP to collect our special run models and raffle tickets. Sarah and I both opted for the Lassie and the surprise for our special run choices. Sarah lucked out and pulled the glossy decorator Totilas, but I decided I didn't really care enough for any of the surprise colors to bother buying one. 

We then headed over to the guest horse barn specifically to see Dani, the 2021 celebration horse. She was just as gorgeous in person as we expected, and we were delighted to get to pet her and get an autograph from her owner. 

 We also got to see Athenian Lady again, the 2024 celebration horse...

And we found Tight Lines, this year's celebration horse, just as he was warming up to go into the covered arena. 

Having acquired the beginnings of a sunburn by that point, we headed for shade and air conditioning for a bit in the visitors' center before making our annual pilgrimage to see Man O' War. The Kentucky Horse Park is a special place, and MOW's grave has a bit of an otherworldly aura about it, fitting for the greatest American racehorse of all time.

We closed out our park visit by once again not being picked for the raffle. We only ever spend about $25 on tickets though, so our chances are never great. This is what comes of being raised by the children of frugal Great Depression grandparents, haha!

A big crowd for the Saturday raffle

We did a bit more visiting at the CHIN on Saturday night before calling BF a wrap. Neither of us bought a whole lot and nothing very expensive. I bought a few small Hagen-Renakers including a DW mushroom I've been wanting for ages and a few other fun odds and ends. 

Some purchases and a few gifts from friends

I did find one very interesting oddity (not pictured) for $10 late on Saturday that I am quietly freaking out about. I need to finish cleaning off paint from an old repainting attempt, but it looks promising. Once I'm confidant I'm not seeing things, I'll share more about that model here. (Cliffhanger!)

The last thing I got at BF was a little gift from my sister. In keeping with the Hagen-Renaker plant theme of my DW mushroom purchase, I brought home another HR-related plant, but this one is real. Years ago, Dawn Sinkovich of Share the Love gave me and Sarah kalanchoe seedlings that had come from Maureen Love's garden. I wasn't able to take mine on the plane, so I sent it home with Sarah, and both plants have thrived under her green thumb. This year, Sarah brought tiny little kalanchoe sprouts from the original line of plants, and I was able to carefully wrap one little pot and tuck it in my purse during my flight home. It's now sitting in the ivy-shaded window of my office, and hopefully I won't kill it by over-watering it. (I love succulents too much sometimes...) Maureen's influence lives on in our hobby in so many ways, and I'm thrilled to nurture this little remembrance of her garden. 

Friday Featurette: the Rare Red Saddle Blanket

I have been up to my eyeballs working on a couple of major writing projects for the last several months, and unfortunately, that means I have been neglecting this blog. (I have actually been doing a bit of writing here and there on several different posts, but all of them are proving to be more convoluted and research-heavy that I anticipated.) I am hoping June will be a bit more chill for me (hahaha), and I am going to try to get a couple of posts finished up before BreyerFest. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, on to the subject of today's post! When it comes to vintage Breyer rarities, sometimes it's a piece of ephemera like a box or a hang tag or an accessory that is the truly rare feature of a model rather than the actual horse (or animal) itself. Such is the case with the very hard to find red plastic saddle blankets that are occasionally found with Fury Prancers. 

A few years ago, I was surfing eBay and stumbled across an auction lot of about a dozen miscellaneous Hartland and Breyer horses, riders, and accessories from the 1950s and 1960s. I had been keeping an eye out for some time for the aforementioned elusive red saddle blanket, and lo and behold, I finally spotted one in that lot. I won the auction for a very reasonable price and was thrilled when my lucky find arrived. 

As you can see, the red plastic saddle blanket is meant to be paired with the English saddle that was also used on the old #36 Racehorse mold and the #P440 Canadian Mountie set. The blanket is identical to the one that came with the Mountie except that it is red instead of the usual blue. The red saddle blanket also has gold trim around the edge while the Mountie's blanket has yellow trim. 

This set also has the rare Drewry Beer stickers 
on the saddle blanket.

Not many of these red saddle blanket sets have turned up, and to the best of my knowledge, it seems they were likely only available for a year or so. The only evidence I know of for them is a partial Breyer dealer catalog that probably dates to 1956. The catalog describes the white Fury Prancer as wearing a "gay red saddle blanket" although weirdly the picture appears to show a horse with a dark colored blanket. (ETA: Fellow Fury fiend Robin R let me know that the IDYB page is just a dark scan. Her copy of the page does show a red saddle blanket.)

Image from Identify Your Breyer

The price list from the same catalog indicates that retailers could order riderless Fury Prancers in a variety of colors and could specify either Western or English saddles for the models. Given the scarcity of the red saddle blankets that came with the English saddles and the text on the price list, it would seem that Western saddles were shipped by default if the retailer didn't specifically ask for a particular style of saddle. Perhaps few retailers asked for English saddles since TV and movie Westerns were hugely popular at the time, and they thought the Western saddles would be more appealing to their customers..

Image from Identify Your Breyer

Whatever the reason, the option for English saddles was no longer listed in the 1958 dealer catalog or price list. (If a 1957 catalog exists, it has not yet come to light.) At least one collector has found a white Fury Prancer with the red saddle blanket and English saddle paired with a Canadian Mountie rider. Perhaps leftover red saddle blankets from the riderless offerings were occasionally sold with Mounties instead of the usual blue? 

Which brings me to the mysterious white Fury Prancer music box. As I wrote in my blog post about music boxes, at least one example of this most elusive of Fury Prancers was spotted in an online auction sporting a red saddle blanket and English saddle combo. Based on extant catalogs and what we know about the palomino and pinto Fury music boxes, the white one was possibly made in 1955 or 1956 for Simpsons-Sears in Canada, and it may have had a Canadian Mountie rider. Until a collector finds another one and can identify the tune it plays, this may remain a mystery.

The red saddle blankets can therefore only date to late 1955 at the earliest as that's when the Fury Prancer models first became available just in time for holiday catalog orders. The one known Breyer dealer catalog that lists them is probably from 1956 based on the models listed in it, and they could have been available as late as 1957. Until a catalog or price list from that year turns up, we can't say for sure. But given how very scarce these little blankets are, I would guess they were only available for a short time in 1956 and were probably discontinued partway through the year due to lack of orders. We may never know the exact details of their production, but the red saddle blankets continue to be very desirable to vintage collectors. 

I hope you all have great weekends! Thanks for reading!

Craft House Kits: More Than Just Paint By Numbers

When I was a kid growing up in the '80s, my best friend lived across the street from me. As avowed horse girls, we hit it off right away when my family moved to Georgia in 1985 (ironically for this particular post, from Toledo, OH). We went to the same school, rode the same bus, took riding lessons at the same barn for several years, and we both collected and played with Breyers. At some point around 1986 or 1987, my friend was given a paint-by-numbers kit, but it wasn't just your standard 2D wall art. No indeed! It was a 3D model of an Arabian horse! I was vaguely aware at that time that adult model horse collectors resculpted and repainted their Breyers, but the notion of customizing one of my beloved carpet herd members horrified me. So this horse painting kit with a model deliberately made to be painted was about the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It came with the usual snap-lid paint tubs in several shades of black, white, and grey, plus some red for the halter. There was also a little brush, a tiny blending sponge, and some instructions on how to paint a dapple grey.

That afternoon, we sat at a picnic table under the giant, ancient live oak tree in her front yard and chatted about our lesson horses while she painted her model. She tried for a grey to begin with, but eventually went with solid black like the opinionated little mare she often rode in her lessons.

I did eventually get over my aversion to repainting perfectly good Breyers, but I never forgot my friend's nifty painting kit horse. A few months after she got her model, I was tagging along with my mom on a shopping trip to K-mart when I spotted the same Arabian kit my friend had along with several other breeds including a walking Thoroughbred and a standing Quarter Horse. I remember stopping to look at them briefly, but we weren't in the store that day for toys or crafts, so I had to hustle and catch up with Mom. I looked for them on subsequent trips to K-mart, but never saw them again.

Many years later, I finally stumbled across the Arabian kit again while idly cruising eBay, and I was delighted to finally know the company name, Craft House of Toledo, OH. I was interested to see that they had made a variety of breeds besides the three I knew of---there was also a Clydesdale, a Pony of the Americas, a Shetland, a foal, and a unicorn. I have seen examples of all of them now except the foal and unicorn. (If anyone has photos of these, especially the foal or unicorn, please feel free to email me! I'd love to add them to this post.)

I acquired a Clydesdale in a body lot ages ago, but I'm not sure if I still have him somewhere. I did however deliberately buy an Arabian just for the sake of nostalgia. I had planned to prep it properly and paint it a more realistic dapple grey, but I'm ridiculously sentimental, and I couldn't bring myself to do so. I'm sure a young horse girl somewhere spent many hours working on this (rather creditable) paint job, so I'm going to leave him be.

I've been wanting to acquire one of these kits new in the box for ages now so I could write up a proper post about them here, but the timing, the price, or the box condition was never quite right until just recently. I scooped up this nice Thoroughbred kit a week ago on eBay, and other than a missing paint brush, it's complete.

The horse is about the size of a Breyer Classic scale model, and it's molded from some sort of heavy plastic or resin. It's textured to supposedly suggest a wood carving, but it really just looks more like hair texture to me. Nonetheless, the horse kits came with both paint for a realistic color or several colors of stain in case you wanted to finish it like a wood carving.

Interestingly, the horse's belly is screwed to a cardboard tab attached to the back panel of the box, presumably to keep the horses in place in shipping. They are fairly heavy, and they would definitely tear through the flimsy cellophane on the front of the box with any rough handling.

The painting instructions are surprisingly detailed.

The instructions are copyrighted 1985 which coincides with when I saw the models in my local K-mart, and other collectors have corroborated seeing them in stores in the mid-to-late 1980s as well. They're a bit hard to find, so I suspect that they were only made for a few years. I see the Arabian, Quarter Horse, and Thoroughbred most often on eBay, and it makes sense that some of the most popular breeds in this country would also be the most appealing in model form. The Clydesdale, POA, Shetland, foal, and unicorn are much less common. Unfortunately, the models are not marked in any way, so if they're no longer in the original box, it can be hard to come up with the right search parameters to find them on online auction sites.

A Craft House Quarter Horse I spotted in a Nebraska antique
mall a few years ago. (I should have bought him.)

According to the back panel of my Thoroughbred box, the horse is a "reproduction of a wood carving by nationally known wildlife sculptor Ed Dietz." Dietz is listed as the sculpting artist for the Arabian, Thoroughbred, and Quarter Horse, and while I don't have pictures of the back panels of the boxes for the other breeds, I would guess he sculpted those as well. The side panels of the boxes have pretty accurate renderings of the other models.

Though Craft House only seems to have made model horses in the 1980s, the company's relevant history really began in 1950 when Max Klein, owner of the Palmer Paint Company in Detroit, MI, hired freelance commercial artist Dan Robbins to "[devise] a hobby kit that would promote the sale of Klein’s paint products. Robbins based his concept on Leonardo da Vinci’s practice of numbering sections of his canvases for apprentices to complete. After trial and error, Robbins’ painting kits became arguably the most loved—and most vilified—hobby of the 'new leisure class' of 1950s Americans." [1] The idea of a paint-by-number kit was first patented in 1923, but the Palmer Paint Company brought the concept to life in the 1950s by the sheer volume of kits they designed and produced.

In 1956, brothers John and A. M. Donofrio bought the company and moved it to Toledo, OH, renaming the company Craft House. [2] In addition to their traditional 2D paint-by-number kits and eventually paint-your-own model horse kits, the company also sold bisque figures to paint or glaze, stain glass lampshade kits, model dogs and duck decoy painting kits, and so much more. You can flip through the pages of one of their catalogs from circa 1975 here:

https://www.paintbynumbermuseum.com/catalog/13031

Craft House products were originally made in the USA, but like so many companies, they eventually had to outsource some of their production to Hong Kong. In 2006, they were bought out by a company called Chartpak, and they now operate out of a Craft House satellite office in Massachusetts. They still make paint-by-number kits and other arts and crafts kits for children.

My Craft House kit still has the original K-mart price tag---it retailed for $4.97 in the mid-1980s. These days, they sell for around $20 new in the box on eBay. Did anyone reading this have a Craft House horse kit back in the day? Did you paint it? If you're willing to share pictures of them, painted or otherwise, with or without boxes, I would love to see them! You can email me at mumtazmahal (at) gmail (dot) com




Citations:

1) Remembering Dan Robbins, a tribute and obituary by the 20 North Gallery 

2) Toledo Blade, Novermber 23, 2004, article about downsizing at Craft House office in Toledo, OH

(Too tired for proper MLA citations today.)