The Westies will probably go on the saleslist (the Sherratt & Simpson one is really tempting), but I’m keeping the little Moomin plate. I couldn’t believe I found it at the Salvation Army for 49 cents! A heavily-trafficked one in a hoity-toity neighborhood, no less! The fools!
(Oh yes, I know what Moomins are. You should know by now not to be surprised that I do.)
Since I’m not a big fan of being rained on, I took a break from gardening and finally started working on the BreyerFest stuff. The sales items have been priced and tagged, the paperwork templates have been prepped, and the jotting down of random ideas for the Sampler has begun.
I’ve also determined that nothing in my body box will be suitable for my contest entry. (Of course.) I took a spin over to one of the local stores earlier this week, to price items I may have to buy for it (at retail - the horror!) I was already in the neighborhood for work, figured I might as well take a look-see.
I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did spend a lot of time admiring that adorable ASPCA set - the one with the Liver Chestnut Ranch Horse, Lab mix and Lynxpoint Kitty. I managed to resist the temptation, but it did get me to thinking about the Sham.
I am going to assume that most of you know that when the Sham was first sculpted, plans were made to also include his feline companion, Grimalkin, to scale. It didn’t work out - it just wasn’t feasible or cost-effective to produce a cat mold that small back then - but one of the prototype kitties did make it into some of the promo materials, including here in the 1984 Dealer Catalog:
Grimalkin was one of the first things that sprung to mind when the Companion Animals were released in 1999. I’ve been waiting for a rerelease of the original Sham, with Grimalkin, ever since.
Yeah, they came out with a "new" Sham in 2005, on the Huckleberry Bey mold. He’s nice and all, but I’d still like to see a release of the set as he was meant to be - on the original mold, in a true golden bay, with his little kitty compadre.
I don’t know why Breyer decided to go with such a funky red hue on Sham back then, when author Marguerite Henry had gone in such detail about the "golden" qualities of Sham’s coat. A couple dozen Golden Bay Shams were eventually made, mostly to appease Sham’s sculptor, Rich Rudish. And several test color examples, including this one I picked up on eBay some time ago:
There seem to be quite a few of these "test" Golden Bays out there, but as I’ve discussed before, a lot of them are the product of wishful thinking than fact.
1 comment:
Thanks for this blog - I grew up in the 1960s reading and rereading King of the Wind dozens of times. I still have my original book. Although I happen to like the Sham mold (unlike some collectors), I was always disappointed that they got the color so wrong ... and that there was no Grimalkin, his constant companion. I didn't realize that Breyer originally intended to release a Grimalkin with Sham - thanks for the info and the photo! Now you have me pining for a new release on the Sham mold in the correct color with Grimalkin. As one of the most important horses in history, Sham deserves better. If all else fails, perhaps I'll have a custom set made someday ... :)
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