May 9, 2016

A Horse is A Horse..

This is an interesting title because I decided to incorporate a number of my pieces under this overall umbrella.  Right away though, I’m reminded of the Waterford Crystal Horse head I got in Hong Kong in 1996, when I went to Hong Kong and then Panang, Malaysia during my tenure at MATTEL.  I’ll never forget that trip!! (smile)

The Horse that’s rearing up on his hind legs is one that I can’t remember exactly where I got him.  However, he is a duplicate of one that I bought in the crystal shop in Disneyland many years ago, and then lost.

There is a second rearing horse that’s actually sort of attached to its crystal base.  It looks like he’s standing in some sort of tall grass.  That one is a piece that I bought during the return trip to the Rose Bowl Flea Market I made last August.  Yeah….it took fourteen years for me to get back to the Rose Bowl, and it was a really cool weekend!!

Well…I’m back….and I had decided that instead of continuing to write (which I actually was really into at the time I stopped), I thought it would be best to go ahead and photograph the rest of the horses!!  This took a bit of time as I had to clean them, and then determine how I would combine them for the photos. (smile)  Interestingly enough, when I place them back on their respective shelves, they will not be exactly where they were before I removed them. (ha,ha,ha,ha)  So-o-o-o, I left off talking about the rearing horses.  Now you can actually see them!!

Alright then….even at this point (this afternoon) I still have four more to shoot, but I am taking a break because although they are H orses, I’m going to place them in another theme.  They will fall under my title, “Steeds of Myth and Legend”….yeah, I just made that up!! (ha,ha,ha,ha)  Two of them are “Winged Horses” (Pegasus and colt), and two of them are Unicorns!!

You’ll see here, pictures of the horses that I’ve picked up both in my travels and / or my weekend excursions to various antique malls and stores, but honestly do not remember any particular story that is associated with them!!  It would be very safe to assume that pieces like the “Feathered Mane Horse”, the “Rounded Snout Horse”, the “JG Horsehead” (JG is the name of the company that made it by the way!!), and the “Crystal Clydesdale”.  The “Crystal Clydesdale” is unique for me for two reasons. (smile)

• It is a piece that is like “a movie lot building” in that it is totally flat on the back!! (ha,ha,ha,ha) As you look at it with the horse facing to the right, he is 3-dimensional.  However….if you then turn him around to face to the left, you’ll see that his body is completely flat!!  It made for a very boring photo, so I did not shoot it from that side.
• The other reason it is special is because for a number of years it went missing from my collection.  I had no idea where it went, and just chalked it up to it being misplaced through some strange circumstance.  When your grandmother passed, it was returned to me as the result of us cleaning out some of the items from her dresser drawers and so on!!  I couldn’t believe it!!

For some reason that little horse got her attention.  I’ll always remember that this item was one that she had in her possession for all those years!!

I think on that note, I’ll end this chapter of the “Chronicles”.  I’m quite pleased with my efforts over the past few days.