Poodle and Dog Coat

(From Breyer History Diva, June, 2011)


Breyer French Poodle with Dog Coat, ca. 1957. The snap on the front of the coat is the same kind of snap used on the early snap saddles. Neat!

You can’t see it, but he has a handpainted red collar - you can actually see the brushstrokes. That’s a little strange, since most of the blue collared Poodles I’ve had have had stenciled collars, and evidence points to the blue collars predating the red collars. The paint’s definitely original, not retouched.

There are all sorts of possible theories as to why they resorted to handpainting the collars. The most likely is that there was a production bottleneck: they might have had a rush order, or outstanding orders, and only so many painting masks to go around. Some of the painters at the factory had to make do with brushes. Hey, they had to handpaint the tongues anyway, right?

(Oddly enough, the eyes and nose are masked - that was a different painting station, I guess!)

I had wanted a "Dog Coat" Poodle for years - basically, ever since I first discovered they existed at all. They’re not expensive when they do come up for sale, partly because a lot of collectors don’t know about them in the first place, but mostly because it’s one of those esoteric things only the really nerdy Breyer kids go for.