2023 partial wrap-up

 So, 2023 is over.  What happened?  Lots of things. 

• I got a Hartland Lady Jewel, although she's a custom done in acrylics that I plan to strip eventually.  Hopefully the original paint is decent.  
• Got extremely lucky at an auction and won two vintage Hagen-Renakers, a large Honora and a Laying Fez, at wildly cheap prices.  Same auction lots also had a Mortons horse, a knock-off of a HR Crusader with sequin eyes, and assorted other things. 
• The big estate sale find was a pair of Art Deco ceramic animals (a gazelle and a ram, or something) and a clear acrylic Manning Modernistic Doe that I almost missed.  
• I did Virtual Breyerfest again, and had a friend pick up my SRs while she was there in person.  I got Nemea and Scurry, Buggy, two Studebakers (neither were blue), and the SM sets.  

For next year, I rejoined the Stablemates and Vintage Clubs.  Was going to skip the VC for financial reasons, but they're doing a night light next year and I couldn't resist.  

Goals for 2024 include selling off some duplicates, continuing the organization goal, and getting some more photo showing prep done. 

A neat Breyer copy

 Went to the rare estate sale that has Breyers a few weeks ago.  This one had a vintage Classic Pegasus in the photos, but since I had to work Friday morning, it was already gone by the time I got there.  I did buy a couple of things.  

Nice Legionario.  I think this is the original release, but maybe not.  In good shape, and I think the ma

 

 

A nice Red Mill copy of the Clydesdale Foal.  They also had a copy of the Nursing TB Mare, and two of the Laying Foals at the sale.   

Retro vintage Avon decanter. 

The foal is Made in Korea, no label of any kind on the poodles but they were cute. 

Another awesome estate auction find

 Lousy pictures for now, but last week I got very very lucky and won some auctions through a local online estate auction.  I was on pins and needles at work that morning, since the auctions ended while I was at work, and I was sure there would be a rash of bidding right before the end.  Turns out there weren't a lot of last-minute bids, and I won six lots in total.  

Three lots were for vintage Dell comic books: Silver, Trigger, and Champion.  At least some of those have Sam Savitt art on the covers, although they weren't allowed to sign their work.  A fourth was for a larger (16x20 approximately) framed print of a Sam Savitt work, a color head-study of a bay horse.  

The fifth was the one I'd noticed first - five horse figurines.  Two are Breyers, a Rejoice and a vintage Appy Family Arabian Stallion.  The other three were china, and one made me yelp, especially after I confirmed that it was what I thought it was.  One Metlox horse, one copy of a Hagen-Renaker draft horse, and the star of the show, a Hagen Renaker large Honora.  Sure, there were a couple of visible repaired breaks, but ! ! ! ! ! !

The last lot was one I'd made a small bid on, just because it was an assortment of horse-shaped objects: three T'ang style horses, a salt-and-pepper set of pintos, a silver stylized horse, a brass less-stylized horse, etc.  But later, I took a second look on the computer, with a larger screen, and noticed a rump and tail of a foal, almost hidden by the salt and pepper pintos.  All I could see was the rump, tail, and part of the head, but it l ooked like a Hagen-Renaker, most likely a Lying Fez.  So I put in a larger bid and crossed my fingers.  I won that lot as well, and yep, one very nice Lying Fez. 

The only little twitch was that at some point after the auction, the company marked my lots by zip-tying tags to things.  And of course, they zip-tied the tag to the Honora, for crying out loud.  Luckily nothing broke and

I got the tag off with no casualties.

Breyerfest 2023

 Breyerfest 2023 is in the books.  

Once again, I didn't go in person - I just can't manage the heat and humidity.  So I asked a friend, Margie, who was going, if she would pick up my SRs and Event Horse for me.  In return, I took her and her husband and daughter out for lunch at G & D Steakhouse on their way back home.  

I submitted my priority list to Breyer, and managed to get my top two picks again this year.  Nemea, because I'm a minor-league Classical Civilizations geek and Nemea is painted to look like a Greek or Roman vase with a chariot team on both sides.  Scurry, the non-variation version, because I thought she was cute. 

Along with the All-Access ticket, I got two of the Single Day SM tickets, so I could have access to the online-only horses and two of the single-day SMs.  I bought the second SM ticket when the set of single-day SMs sold out before I got one.  But, of course, I got two Whips, the mini-me Vanner mold, which is my least favorite.  So, off I'll go to the swap groups and see what I can do.  The first day, I ordered Buggy the SM, the plush, and the 5-piece Best of Breyerfest SM set.  Later, I ordered a Studebaker, and even later, I ordered a second Studebaker, hoping for the blue variation.  

Breyer switched to a more environmentally friendly packing this year - the SRs came in paper envelopes with waffle-paper packing instead of bubble wrap and plastic bags.  So far, it seemed to work okay for my horses.  And I do have a pretty good stash of bubble wrap already.

The big estate sale find

 This might be my biggest find ever at a sale, even bigger than my chalky Donkey. 

To set the stage - there was a massive estate sale in town this past month.  Seriously massive - the house was so full that they had to hold four separate sales, over about six weeks.  One sale was 3 days and just the books from the house.  They weren't hoarders, but they were massive accumulators of stuff.  The husband and wife were both artists and art teachers, and they liked everything.

I did go to the books-only sale, and found a few horse books.  The first version of Justin Morgan Had a Horse, a Jeanne Mellin book, C.W. Anderson's A Touch of Greatness, and the World Book of Dogs, plus two Rick Brant mysteries and an old issue of Asimov's magazine.  None in the greatest shape, but I thought they were worth the $6 each that this company wants for vintage books.

That was the appetizer.  This past week they had the final sale (I missed the first two), and there were a couple of Breyers in the preview pictures, plus a pair of ceramic Art Deco animals. The Breyers were an alabaster Semi-rearing Mustang, and the original USET trio. Luckily, the sale started on Wednesday, and I didn't have to work on Wednesday (although it was the last day of school for the year, so I had to do the school pick-up at 12:30 instead of 3:30).  I went over to the sale location early, to pick up a line number, and then went back and got there about half an hour after the sale opened, with the teenager in tow.  

 

First order of business was to find the Art Deco animals.  They were much larger than I expected, but that made the $40/each price easier to justify.  I carried one in each hand, and went looking for the Breyers.  The house was like a maze, most of the rooms connected so you could go in a big circle.  Found the Breyers, but the Mustang was missing his tail and part of both ears (priced at $8).  USET horses were in similar shape for $4 each, but I did find a ceramic Made in Japan horse for $4.  We looked around inside and found a few other things, then paid for the finds and went outside to look at the rest of the sale.  They had two tents/canopies, plus a garage and an overhang/porch area and other nooks and crannies.  

And there, in the last outdoor nook, I spotted a clear acrylic Don Manning "Artistic Doe"!!  For only $3!!!  Grabbed her PDQ and looked around hoping for the Buck as well, but no luck.  Oh well.  I've been looking for those for a long time, and wasn't really clear about whether I was looking for something Trad sized, SM sized, or what.  Now I know.  

A hunting scene, done in metallic something-or-other.

The large pink ram? Bighorn sheep?  

Small Made in Japan or China horse, about Classic scale.  One broken and repaired hind leg.

The scale of these three.  Blue deer is about 2 feet tall, pink sheep-critter is about 18 inches.

The Doe!!  She is stamped Don Manning on one hind leg.

Massive deer-critter, with photobombing by Modernistic Doe.

Good grief

 I can tell that I've got a part-time job and my free time has gone down a lot.  Sheesh. Will try to do better. 

Ooops, there was a quiet spell

 Apparently I've been busy and forgot to post here for a while. 

Brief update - I just ordered the first of the 2023 Club horses - the Vintage Club has a silver bay pinto Justin Morgan, and the SM Club has the G1 Arabian Mare and Laying Foal. A blind bag is riding along with each order, and fingers crossed maybe I'll get one of the chase horses. 

 

Tomorrow is the release of the first Collector's Club horse, a glossy bay on the new Fireheart mold.  We'll see if I can get one, and how expensive they are.