Down with the Count

I received my Connoisseur Kennebec Count last week: mine’s #108. He’s really faboo. So much nicer than the promotional photographs let on, but that’s not too much of a surprise: seriously, people at Reeves, either invest in a better photographer, or spend more time tweaking and color correcting the photos. They sure aren’t selling the product the way they should!

His color is really neat - it’s sort of a richer, updated version of the infamous chocolate milk sorrel of Five-Gaiter fame. My guy is a little less red and more yellow-brown than what I’ve seen posted around the Internet; but that’s might be a result of my monitor’s color calibration and the automatic color correction on most people’s digital cameras.

I was really surprised at the level of quality of the masking. It’s on par - or even slightly better, actually - than the Mosaic in terms of detail and intricacy. All of the elaborate cuts, curls and swirls in his mane are especially delightful, and make me wonder if he was an experimental piece for more intricate paint jobs to come - like the BreyerFest Sprinkles, maybe?

Also impressive was the extremely short ship time: he we literally on my doorstep within a month of the drawing date. Near-instant gratification? Awesome!

I’ve suspected that at least a little bit of the antagonism towards the Kennebec Count mold stems from the stories and rumors swirling about his alleged origins. I haven’t really followed any of that all that closely, since I’m not a starry-eyed devotee of any current model horse sculptor (well, Eberl to a small degree, maybe.)

And it’s not that I’m unaware of any of his shortcomings: I’ve explained before that realism isn’t my primary, overriding criteria when it comes to selecting pieces for my herd.

What Kennebec does have - for me - is an over-the-top rock star outrageousness to him. He’s big, he’s loud, he’s got the long and wavy metal-god hair: is it any surprise that I’ve taken all my Kennebec’s names from the pages of Rolling Stone? (The new guy’s name? Elton, of course.)

Now, for no reason than I had the camera ready, a few random shots of the upstairs wing of the collection. Consider it a preview of future topics to come.