Auction horses

 Bought some more horses at the consignment auction last month.  Nice vintage ones, like Proud Arabians, a Jumper with his wall, a very white Misty, and a second Clydesdale set with green blankets.  I thought for half a day that the Proud Arabians were something special, being bays with blazes but no socks.  Turns out, as someone on Facebook pointed out, they used to have socks, before someone had some fun with a presumed Sharpie.  So, I spent an hour or so with rubbing alcohol and q-tips, and made a tiny dent in the Sharpie.  At that rate, though, I'll never get all the socks off.  Other than that, though, they look really nice.  

 

 

 

 

Breyerfest finds part 2

 But wait, there's more!  The local consignment auction had dozens of new-in-box Breyers last week, along with a lot of other toys.  I already had most of what was listed, or wasn't interested, but I did get into the bidding for three of them. 

I'd somehow missed these three when they came out.  I wasn't the only one bidding, so the prices weren't super low, but I'm happy with that.  Justin Morgan was about $25, then $50-ish for Sham, and $100ish for the Merry Widow.  
 

New horses for the herd

 In spite of my attempts at self-control, I've added some more horses lately. 

 Thanks to the consignment auction, I've added a bunch of nice vintage Breyers: 

• the Clydesdale Mare & Foal gift set, with box and blankets
• the Our First Pony gift set, with cardboard box and halter for Midge
• another dapple-gray Proud Arabian Stallion
• Abdullah on the Trakener mold (my second Abdullah)
• bay G1 Morgan Stallion
• bay G1 Arabian mare 
• a handful of rider dolls (four, I think) and assorted tack
• and a red Dala horse made in Sweden 

Then, this week, one of the thrift stores posted some pictures on facebook, and I spotted a pair of Cheval ponies on a shelf.  Got up the next morning and was waiting (with 25 other people) when they opened.  Turns out there were seven Cheval ponies total, all the comical spaghetti-mane Shetlands.  Only $10 each, so I bought them all.  They're in pretty good condition, one has a repaired leg and an ear chip, and there's some crazing here and there, but they're so cute. 

 

 

More chalkies!

 And a week later, more luck at the consignment auction.  Two more chalkies - a bay Clydedale Mare and dapple grey Proud Arabian Stallion - plus some other Breyers and a plethora of non-Breyers, including Barbie horses, Grand Champions, and other odds and ends.  

Glamour shots coming soon.

Chalky Luck

 I just acquired my third chalky Breyer, and second I've found in the wild.  Coincidentally, both of the wild ones have been Donkeys, and both from the same estate auction place.  

Donkey B was an accident, he was in a bunch of toys, in the background of the photo, and I bid on a whim because the lot was going pretty low.  I was happy to have the donkey at that price anyway, and even happier when I picked everything up, unpacked them, and he turned out to be a green plastic Donkey in pretty good shape.  

There were some other goodies in the lot (it was a large lot), including a nice large Dala horse. 

Not included in the photos yet - Touch of Class and the chestnut QH Yearling in really good condition, a glossy alabaster Shetland missing half an ear, a dozen or so Stablemates in various conditions, and other odds and ends of Funrise, Safari, Schleich, a Nylint, a painted Craft House Arabian, and some unmarked, unidentified critters. 

The Annual Hagen-Renaker find

 This week was my annual Hagen-Renaker find.  About once a year, I come across a HR or two at an estate sale or auction or something.  Usually minis, although I keep hoping for a nice Design Workshop Swaps or Kelso, or the large Zara or something. This year, it was an auction lot at the consignment auction, for a mirrored tray and about 20 ceramic animals.  Mostly cats and dogs, but hidden in the back, a pair of Hagen-Renaker mini drafts in harness.  I drove down to the auction site to pick them up on Wednesday.  It was a nice drive, but some roads that I would not want to drive in bad weather.   The rest of the animals are nice, mostly made-in-China or made-in-Japan, most likely, but the horses are in fact Hagen-Renakers, and are mint.  No broken legs or anything. 

So cute!  I'll have to put a Breyer G1 Drafter next to them in the curio cabinet.

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.

New not-horses

 Won an auction last night for a group of Hagen-Renakers.  No horses, but there are a Mama and Papa Penguin, three Eskimos (Inuit, now, I think), and a trio of Polar Bears.

They're in pretty good shape overall.  Some crazing, Mama Penguin has a chip out of her beak, and one of the Cubs has a tiny chip on his nose.  

$44 for the whole lot, so $4.50 average each. 

Mixed lot

 Since I've been avoiding estate-sale crowds, I've been spending a good bit of time going through the online listings for the local consignment auction place.  That's where I got the alabaster trio a few weeks back, and a mixed lot of ceramic horses and other animals in the summer.  Today I drove out to pick up the latest batch.  For $4.40, I got an assortment of tiny dishes, and 4 horses.  One is wood, with a Sweden sticker, one is metal, one ceramic, and the fourth one is made of a mystery substance that I can't identify.  Might be celluloid, might be plastic, it's hard to tell.  

Also today, thanks to eBay's daily search emails, I scored a Sam Savitt racing hall of fame puzzle for less than $40 shipped.  Granted, the seller makes no claim about whether it's complete or not, but the next cheapest one is $50 for a claimed-incomplete puzzle, and complete ones are listed now for over $100.  The box of the one I bought looks almost new, so hopefully the last owner was as careful with the pieces as they were with the box.  

Vintage auction score

 I usually find some luck once a year at the estate sales here, but I haven't been to an estate sales since March, thanks to COVID.  But, there are other options.  Yesterday, the local consignment auction had a sale ending, and I remembered to look through the online catalog.  And, bingo, Breyers.  Listed as Breyers, of course, so there were multiple bidders.  I didn't bid on many of them, just 3 lots with Breyers and one lot of random animals that was mostly bone china horses, but a wood horse and a Hagen-Renaker Lying Foal in the mix.  

Big score, and the one I spent the most on, is a glossy alabaster Semi-Rearing Mustang, with red eyes.  He's gorgeous.  There are some rubs on his mane and nose, but the black marks came off, and he's great. 

Next is the alabaster Running Stallion, who is older than I am.  Lots of times you'll see something online that looks like an alabaster Running Stallion, but it's just a Unicorn that's lost the horn and beard somewhere.  This one, I'm pretty sure, is the real deal. 

Third is a glossy alabaster Pround Arabian Foal, who was peeking out of a box surrounded by a doll and some kind of stuffed animal, and a lot of odds and ends.  

Then, on a whim, I bid on the group of small animals, because the bay foal looked familiar.  Turns out he's a Hagen Renaker.  Of course, he's also the only one that was broken, but the piece was with him and it should be an easy fix. 

Took a nice drive out this morning to pick them up, and spent a little time cleaning them when I got home.  Managed, with work, to get most of the black marks off the Mustang, so they're all gorgeous now. 

Auction score

Found these thanks to a local online consignment auction.  Mostly Japanese-made ceramic, but 5 metal horses, one that seems to be plaster or chalkware, a couple of plastic, and a mystery salt shaker.