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. 

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.

Estate Sale (August 2)

One of the local estate-sale companies posted some pics with Breyers for a recent sale, so of course I went.  Hauled the not-a-morning-person kiddo out to go with me.  Another local collector wasn't going, but asked me to pick up a couple for her if the prices were right.  And they were. 

I picked up the black wolf, cougar, Custom kit horse, and Spirit for Tracy.  Wolf and Cougar were a screaming deal at $2 each.

The Duchess, Frolic Foal, and SMs are mine.  Most of what the owner had was from the Wild Mustangs Walmart sets, so lots of Mesteno series molds, which I'm not a fan of.  I didn't have the Duchess, though, and she's almost mint.  The SMs were the real score for me, especially this one.

Only $1, he was only released for a couple of years with the Horse Crazy card game.  Missing half his off-side ear, but still fine for photo showing, if I watch the angles. 

An Estate Sale Story

The area is up to 3, I think, people who hold estate sales, and they all put pictures online, and I try to remember to check them out weekly.  Last week, one of them had a couple of Marx horses in the ad (not a big draw for me), but also the Gabriel jointed Silver and Lone Ranger.  I have, or used to have (I assume I still have him somewhere) a Silver, but thought I'd go see if the Lone R
anger doll was cheap enough to come home with me. 

Unfortunately, not so much. 

Somehow, the sale runners had mixed and matched the sets, in spite of doing enough research to know that the dolls and horses were from Gabriel, but that the wagons were by Marx.  The wagons actually go with the Marx horses on the other side.  Not to mention, Silver never struck me as a wagon-pulling sort of horse.  The Lone Ranger set was $175, the Butch Cavendish set (which I'd never heard of) was $150.  And the Marx horses were $15 each.  So, didn't buy those.  I didn't even go back the second day for 75%-off time to see if they'd split the sets. 

On the other hand, as I walked in and saw the Marx/Gabriel sets, I spotted this guy on the top of a handful of small critters. 

Only $1, and he's probably my favorite SM mold ever.  Original bay, and aside from someone getting overzealous with the dremel along his crest at the factory, only a couple of rubs.  Found a little Britains horse too, and two Hartland 7-inch TBs.  Although I just realized that the Hartlands have a distinct odor of something, I'm afraid it's cat pee, so they are in a plastic tub with some baking soda at the moment. 

And then there was the cute Josef Original cat for $1.

I also remembered that where there are horse shaped objects, there may also be horse books, and looked at all the bookshelves.  Scored a pair of C.W. Anderson books, although neither have the dustjacket, and Heads Up - Heels Down is one I'm pretty sure I didn't have. 

 There were also a lot of ceramic deer, and after thinking about it over lunch, and being "deer pressured" by the Clinky Connection and Model Horse Liberation Front people on Facebook LOL, I went back for these.   These two are Lomonosov, made in the USSR. 

And this little guy I thought was a donkey when I bought him.  By R. W. Midwinter of Benslem England.  After much consultation, consensus is that it's also a deer, although a donkey-colored one.  Other possibilities were a rabbit, or half of a pushmepullyou.