Hartland Tinymite Arabian

Hartland Tinymite Arabian

Hartland Tinymite Arabian, #60, 1966-1969, $2.50, Countryside Antiques, Lebanon, IN.

New mold with changed ears and tail, styrene,.

Breyer Boxer Clock

My lucky find!

 Breyer Boxer Clock, # unknown, $38, Sell It Here, Lafayette, Indiana, October 22, 2014.

I have been corresponding with Sande Schneider, and she found a picture of a Boxer clock in Nancy Atkinson Young's files. It is owned by Jo Kulwicki.

The clockworks are different, but other than that, they look the same.

The clock workings are labeled "Lanshire, Chicago" and I have found several of the metal horse clocks with Lanshire workings on eBay as I research this find.

These are the only two Breyer Boxer clocks known in the hobby. Needless to say, I am thrilled to have made such a find! And very, very grateful.

The Find of a Lifetime

Since I have been collecting so long, I have had the opportunity to buy pieces new that are now quite collectible or to find others on the secondary market (antique shops, bartering with another hobbyist, etc.) It is a medium sized collection, but it is high quality. I love my collection and sure hope there is collecting in the next life!!

My biggest hope over the years has been to score a decorator. Decorators were produced in the 1950s/early 1960s and did not sell well. Who wanted a blue or gold horse? Now they're VERY valuable.

I did find a decorator once. Kathy Bateman, a lady living in the low-income apartments where I delivered newspapers in the 1990s, had one that I spied one day while delivering her newspaper. I knew she could get more than the $75 I had to spend, so I put her in touch with a collector with deeper pockets than mine. She got $1500 for that piece! (I may have lost the model, but I made a life long friend - Kathy and I are still in touch.)

I've kept my eyes peeled for a decorator for decades and never found one. I always thought a decorator would be the most exciting thing I could find and add to my collection. 

Until Tuesday when I made the biggest collecting find of my life.

Tuesday I popped into Sell It Here, a place I have found some nice pieces at good prices in the past. As I poked around, across an aisle and past two booths I spied a Breyer Boxer - a dog that the company has produced since its earliest days and is fairly easy to find. (I have two.)

It had the original studded vinyl collar, marking it as from the earliest days of production. Mine don't have the collars, so I walked over to take a look. But there was more to this dog than first appeared.

 It was attached to a wooden plinth and had a clock.

I paused. Breyer made clocks in their earliest days in conjunction with Mastercraft. They, too, are highly collectible. This looked a lot like the clocks I had seen in pictures.

A Breyer Davy Crocket clock. (Picture by Sande Schneider.)

But never, ever had I heard of a Boxer clock. I'd not seen any at shows where Breyer clocks were featured or in any of the reference books I have. And at $45, I hesitated to take something home I strongly suspected might be a fake.

I left it at the shop. 

I went home and emailed my friend, Sande Schneider, about it. Sande is also a long time collector, and she has file cabinet upon file cabinet of Breyer history documentation. If anyone could tell me if the Boxer clock was real or a fake, it was Sande. (Breyer has even come to her to get documentation as they did not keep good records in the early days of the company.)

Sande said that she did not know of any Breyer Boxer clocks, but would do some research. In her archives is the material Nancy Atkinson Young collected when she wrote the definitive collectors book on the company.

And in going through Nancy's archives, Sande found this:

A picture of a Breyer Boxer clock. Same studded vinyl collar, same wooden plinth, same clock housing, but a different clock face.

The only other Breyer Boxer clock known. (No wonder I'd never seen any at shows!)

Wow. I had just come across quite a valuable piece - and I'd left it behind! 

The next day I left Hershey as soon as school was over, hoping against hope that the clock would still be at Sell It Here.

It was. And it was on sake for $38, a nice plus!

Now there are TWO Breyer Boxer clocks in the hands of hobbyists.

(Sande put me in touch with the owner of that clock, Jo Kulwicki. I am looking forward to hearing about her clock, where she found it, and any history she can shed on it.)

Vintage Club Isabelle

Disappointed!

For the first time.

Ever.

In Breyer's Vintage Collectors Club.

I have three favorite molds: the Semi-Rearing Stallion, the 5 Gaiter, and the Indian Pony. Imagine my excitement when Breyer announced the old-style black dapple on the Indian Pony for one of this year's Vintage Club!

Here's what I was supposed to get:

 Isabelle, #712105, $135, #4 of four pieces of 2014 Vintage Collector Club pieces, September, 2014.

And here's what I received:

Some collectors are calling this a "lacy" variation, much like there is in the silver filigree and florentine coloring Breyer does. But, doggone it!! I wanted a black dapple that looks like the picture on the box!

Woodgrain 5 Gaiter

I bought this woodgrain 5 Gaiter as an upgrade to mine. He is in better condition and has the old Breyer Tenite sticker.

 Woodgrain 5 Gaiter with Tenite sticker, #951 Commander, 1961-1965, $100, Julie Acers, 8/2014.

 A close-up of the sticker. Sadly, she had it taped on the model.

 Originally, Julie wanted $200 for this piece. Too much for me, nice as he is.

This is one of my favorite molds, and I am happy to add him to my herd.

Old Timer

When Lisa found the Marx pieces at Raven's Roost, she also found this lovely piece!

 Old Timer, #205, 1966 - 1987, USA stamp, $25, Raven's Roost Antiques, Lafayette, Indiana.

 He has such lovely, lovely dappling!

Sadly, he broke in transit (right hind leg, just under hock). I've repaired it and it is almost unnoticeable. He's still a really good find, especially since he still has his hat.

Thunderbolt and Johnny West!

Lisa knows to look for HSOs when she's out and about, and so when she was in Raven's Roost Antiques recently and spied a few of them, she excitedly sent me some pictures via text. I was in Colorado during the time and really appreciated her vigilance - I am delighted to add Thunderbolt and Johnny West to my collection!

 Marx Thunderbolt, $18, Raven's Roost Antiques, August, 2014.

Mark Johnny West, $11.50, Raven's Roost Antiques, August, 2014.

I didn't have Johnny West, but I did have Josie and Janice, plus Thunderbolt, Thundercolt, Flame, and the horse with the articulated body.