Griffin Lamps

After planting trees in the morning, I had an uneventful birthday, working on craft projects and restoring my latest acquisition:

I don’t have much documentation about the manufacturer of this lamp, the Griffin Lamp Manufacturing Company, other than this ad I found in the November 1970 issue of Western Horseman:

The company made more than just the Western Prancing Horse lamp; you can occasionally find similar lamps with other toys attached, like stuffed animals and die-cast trucks. In fact, I might have had one on my night stand when I was little; I think it was a vinyl bear? It was basically a big squeaky toy, and not (thank goodness) one of those creepy stuffies with a human face.

(It’s long since gone.)

The Western Prancer ones turn up every once and a great while; the last one I saw previous to the Buckskin was a Smoke with its original lampshade, and it went for more money than I was comfortable paying. (While Smoke is not listed in the ad, its absence is obviously a typo.)

The Buckskin one had been sitting on eBay for at least a month prior; I didn’t notice it at the time because I was trying to behave myself for Lent and not actively buying anything. So when he happened to pop up on top of my searches early last week, I decided to make it my birthday present this year!

He was in much better shape than I expected him to be, other than the missing shade and saddle. I have been trying to upgrade my Buckskin Western Prancing Horse for quite a while too, and other than the yellowing, I think he’s aesthetically better than my current Buckskin. 

But since I consider the lamp its own separate thing, I’ll still be on the lookout.

The numbering of these lamps in the ad is interesting, since it obviously follows the numbering of the original Western Prancer releases, with a one added to the front: Buckskin is #1111, Palomino is #1112, Bay is #1114, and Appaloosa #1115. This is not dissimilar to the numbering system they used for the Showcase Collection, which used trailing zeroes. Or even the Presentation Collection, which had the number 50 prefixed to their original release numbers: for example, the Presentation Collection Man o’ War was numbered #5047. 

All of these oddball releases happened around the same time (the late 1960s and early 1970s) so it makes me wonder if Breyer had originally intended to market these as a part of their own product line, but pulled out at the last minute. (In case it is not obvious, the base is also plastic.) 

I have a feeling that the replacement saddle for the lamp will end up costing me more than what I paid for the lamp itself. Alas, I’m already consigned to paying a princely sum for the lampshade, so I may just bite the bullet and go for it anyway.