Friday, July 20, 2018

The Traditional Loot shots

Traditional is the word here:  Eight of the 11 new models I brought home were 1:9 scale.  (One of the miscreant 3 was larger.)  I admit this has been a year of largesse, if not excess!   If seen in its complete form -- showing every model that I obtained at BreyerFest this year -- my traditional Loot picture shows a staggering array, greater than any that have gone before.  Think of this shot as the "total gross:"
One saddle, one china, two foals, two bulls, two blankets, two geldings, three halters, three boxed Trads, four Stablemates and four adult stallions.  One Hartland, one Freeman-McFarlin (I think).  One big-ticket item, bet you can't guess which -- !!   And a great many dreams come true, including a glorious driving pair of bays.  Total gross, 18 models.

But now consider the "net" version:  11 models.  One of the boxes and three of the Stablemates are pickups for friends.  One friend kindly let me have the blue SM.
The Saffron is a direct body-to-body transfer with another horse, meaning I left home with a Geronimo and came home with a Saffron.  He cannot be counted as new!  Same name (Stargazer), same mold, same personality.  They do this sometimes.  Thanks to Heather for effecting this trade.  She wanted a tackmaking matte model and I wanted a colored glossy, so -- when both sides are happy -- !  He started his new phase by being my test-photo horse during NAN.
Now for the big-ticket item.  This horse cost considerably more than any of my others -- as much as six of them put together, more than three times my next most expensives.  But he was a pickup.  He'd been in the vet's hands for a year.  Remember?
The horse without his front legs, covered in scratches and rubs?  A carcass picked from a bodybox for five bucks.  A terrible accident left for dead.  You wouldn't recognize him now!!  At long last he is restored to his former glory.  I am deeply amazed at the artistry and hard work that went into this incredible restoration;  Jenn said it was extreme and she didn't know how to go about it for the longest time.  All cheers for this model vet who achieved the impossible:
He is much darker than Prince King, my earlier Regal red Arab; more so than these pix show.  The splendor of the old 1967 Hartlands shows through.  Well might they call them the Regal Series!!
I named him Maharajah... (last year was India...) ... as an equally kingly name, but it's barely regal enough.  When my husband heard this story and saw this horse, he asked, "Do you have classes for repaired horses?"  Stunned, I told him no.  What a thought.  But why not??  We have classes for everything else...  Surely this is a growing division!!

Oh and the boxed Icabad?  He's an 'investment' for later sale.

So now my total net Loot shot looks like this:
A little less greedy.
The two blankets were picked up in different places for different prices, but they should all be showing up in another Blanket Blog sometime soon.  As my interest continues in this subject, I'm collecting other private individuals' work and not just Breyer blankets.

The saddle came from Russia although the seller could not tell me the maker's name.  Subsequent research (thank you Heather again) is putting forth "Natalia Midnightline."  I still need to verify this.

The Duende/Straight Bet is well named, as he is just about the "straightest" model I own (Brasenose not with standing, hah!).  I needed the mold and I loved the color.

The little bluetail china was a no-brainer.  For decades I've had one just like that, only with a green mane.  The two together are irresistable:
Who says I don't collect chinas??  : )

The Brahma was also irresistable, also for a very old reason.  My grandfather had given his wife one of these as an aniversary present.  I'd seen it as a child and pestered Grandma until she gave it to me.  In 1979 I'd traded it for a Decorator (a Florentine 5-Gaiter).  You couldn't do that today, but I still wanted one.
And the buffalo is my BHR take for the year.
Everybody who saw this buffalo wanted to know about him.  I grew tired of telling the complexities and simply snapped "He's a BHR repaint!"  Or shorter still, "Not For Sale!!"  The whole tale is amost mysterious in its twists... surely my best buffalo story.  My buffalo conga again deserves its own post!  For now here's a look at his off side:
Here he is with my earlier BHR piece, the light brown Buffalo.  Brothers in Karen's collection, they are now reunited.  What they have seen together...

Last but never least, Most desired and most gloried in, Named before I got him and thus a sure sign of besottedness! is my obsessed-over Icabad and his luckily-found driving pair partner, Loughnatousa.  I'm not sure which one came first; probably the Copperfox, as Finnegan was released in 2015 and Rangoli happened in 2017.  Morgen Kilbourn sculpted them both, and from the day I saw True North I'd been wondering what kind of a pair these two molds would make.
As often happens, my desire for a particular model grew so slowly that by the time I really wanted him he was long sold out.  This was the case with Loughnatousa, or Superman Fabio as he is known.  (Don't you love these horses with 5 names?!  A.k.a. Irish Sport Horse.)  Copperfox produced 250 of them, and 10 semi-glossies, in 2016.  Having wanted one for years, I was blessed beyond all luck to stumble out of my CHIN room on Saturday night and find one within 15 minutes!  I had looked so hard all week...  I bargained her down and she then threw in 4 free books, making me feel like a monster of ingratitude.
That's not the most unusual part of the tale.  In the halls I spoke with a near-stranger who stared at me when I mentioned Loughnatousa.  "Loff-na-Toosa" I pronounced it, blithely ignoring the real Lock-na-two-sa and completely not knowing it is a famous Irish studfarm.  But she told me it was the name of a mythical tree, connected to healing and magic and..?!?  
I ws thrilled and decided to keep that his name for now.  Yet subsequent research has revealed no such thing.  If anyone out there knows what this name really means I'd love to hear about it --- !
 You may remember Rangoli, last year's Raffle model at BreyerFest.  He was a bay minimal-pinto on the True North.  I've never seen the ballot-box so stuffed as was his.  I myself spent $20 on tickets for him, twice and three times as much as I usually do.  I wanted him so bad!!  But of course the odds were astronomical.  I've entered the Raffle so many times over the years... this year was my 27th BreyerFest... never won yet.
So I trotted out my best defense.  I told BreyerHistoryDiva I'd just wait til they released him in bay and then I'd "etch my own!"  Not like I've never done this...  wink, wink, Rinker...   Imagine my astonishment when I saw Icabad Crane.

It was as though Breyer had read my comment.
I was so worried there wouldn't be any Icabads left.  I balanced my Friday morning tent ticket with standing in line for the Pit (Breyer Store).  It was a close call; remember the crowds!!  No one could tell us how many models we were limited to.  (The answer turned out to be "as many as you can carry, but only 1 Icabad per person.")  When I finally got there I grabbed without really picking, grabbed two other horses, saw the dinosaurs and grabbed 4 of them.  (The dinos were so wonderful there might be a future post on them!)  Successful, I bolted for the car, then bolted some more, back to the in-a-different-place-than-before tent line.  Said bolting really being trotting, as I was "training" for the 5K race too.

The Icabad's name came to me in a dream.

On Thursday afternoon, after photographing all 3 days of NAN,  I collapsed on the bed in 610 and took a wee nap.  In the dream the scene made sense:  I was running through a great sunlit shallow sea, waters flowing away, with a great peaceful sense of flying along, of striding...  But when I woke up I knew that name had come out of somewhere completely and totally Other.
Dry The Sea.

It's a habit of mine to get the Jaapi halters of the year, and 2018 was no exception.  Jaapi (p. yoppy) has consistently interpreted BreyerFest's themes.  Off To The Races translated into the racing stables' colors for Brass Hat, Justify and American Pharaoh.  I think they're neat.  With so much loot, I need them.
Happy Collecting!

Saturday, July 7, 2018

The Sue Peet Bridle Set

This bridle was originally inspired by an earlier TSII piece, a headstall made in 2006 (Evans' 2nd headstall).  I'd always wanted to try another One-Ear that adjusted slip-fashion.  This bridle was also made as a test for Auction Barn for me, to see whether this venue would work for me.  It was completed in February of 2009 and had split reins.
The split reins themselves were inspired by a pair I'd made for K. Meekma in January, but differed in the details of the buttons.  These had Fan buttons, 9P 7B 1-3-3-1 (the 1-3-3-1 refers to the passes over and under of one finished outside strand, across the long axis -- a name I made up!), while Meekma's had 9P 8B  2-2-2-2s.  I loved my Fan buttons and thought they were amoung the prettiest in my repertoire, even though they were also one of my hardest buttons to braid!
But the March Auction Barn debut failed to meet reserve.

The next thing that happened was I chose to submit the bridle for the North American Nationals Auction ... and give it a new bit.  I must have gotten my engraving vise that February, because these bits were my very first sterling silver engraving efforts.  On the inside of one bit is picked out "09" and on the other is "SBY."
Sue Peet won that June auction.  The donation percentage was 50%.

The bridle was offered with a matching breastcollar and set of Romal Reins, to be made later but sold at the same donation percentage.  It took me til August to finish these.
Sue Peet later told me she never used them.... she just gloried in their beauty.  They were very well kept in their own airtight box.  When I first received them in 2018, they had been packed with fleece ... the first time I'd seen this in a lifetime of shipping model tack!
(She also purchased the Maximillian Bridle, a later NAN Auction piece.)

Ten years later, in the spring of 2018, at a local show, Susan Rudnicki Hurst told me Peet's health was going downhill.  Her disease had reached the point of barring live showing.  Hurst was dispersing some of her collection.  I had never forgotten the Fan Button Bridle set, feeling it was some of my best work.  I quickly came up with a proposal, and a commission was worked out.
In my turn, I too have not used these pieces, except for photographing them.  It seems that such high-calibre braidwork is doomed to spend large portions of its life tucked away or hung up.  Yet oh, how they enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame.  What glories may they not participate in -- what beautiful heads might they adorn -- !!
For so many years I've wished I had tack in hand to offer at BreyerFest.  This will be yet another test.

As of this writing the plan is to take offers on this Bridle Set and post them on MH$P.   I would like the closing to be Saturday the 14th, at 10pm EDT.  Your patience is appreciated while I deal with all the rest of BreyerFest, and a possibly recalcitrant tablet -- !  my only online link whilst in Kentucky.  If the winner is not present, shipping must be charged.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Collecting!

Note from the Future:  The winner of this set was Andrea Smith.