Dwelling on the Pit, Pt. I

Things are almost back to normal; pretty much everything except the paperwork is done. The paperwork will take a while, but I don’t mind, considering the quality of the stuff (the paper, and the horses) that I brought home. I’m going to have to have a sale on all the leftovers and upgraded stuff pretty soon. Maybe I’ll just sell it all as a lot, save some time…

Here’s a scan of the Armstrong Supply Company logo from the brochure I mentioned last week, just to prove I wasn’t talking out of my butt:


I did some cursory research, but wasn’t able to find anything more about the company - what happened to it, how long it was in business, or whether it’s now operating under a different name or something. At least I have a name and address to work with now.

My horse pickings were pretty modest this year: almost entirely stuff from the NPOD:

• Escondido
• Silver Charm Newsworthy
• Pink Poodle
• Lady Liberty
• Pintaloosa Standing Stock Horse Fun Foal
• Pippen (blue roan POA - in a Racehorse box? Odd.)
• Buttermilk (older Adios release in a JCP XMAS box, with video)
• 2009 and 2010 Dealer Catalogs
• Two Radars (one for me, one for a friend)
• LSE G2 "Denim" Arabian

I passed on the Alborozos, the Connoisseurs (The Widowmaker, Giselle, Gilen, Oasis), didn’t need a Frappe or Summer Solstice, missed all of the other Fun Foals, and I wasn’t "offered" any of the FEI Straplesses or LSE Sassies. (Apparently I wasn’t deemed worthy enough by the Breyer staffers - more on that later.) I thought about getting the other two Medalist Ponies, but interest seemed surprisingly low on them, so I figured I could wait another year on them and hope the price gets docked even more. The Silver is the one I really, really wanted anyway, and the $75 price tag was exactly what I was willing to pay for it.

I didn’t see any Autumns, no TSC or Mid-States pre-releases, no Christmas Catalog stuff except for the actual Christmas-themed pieces (Jewel, the ornaments, etc.) I just missed getting the last Music City (as did one of my roommates) and at one point I thought I was being offered a test/station sample of a Silver/Hobo, but I don’t know if that was just a case of bragging or affirmation, instead. (Annoying, but water over the bridge at this point.)

Lots of other stuff, too - the usual BreyerFest leftovers, recently discontinued items, new releases, clothing, odds and ends. They had Cream and Cocoa, but at the regular retail price - too rich for my blood. Not a bad assortment of pickings this year, overall.

Things did seem to go a little bit smoother this time around, but I don’t think much of what Reeves did had anything to do with it. It’s pretty much the same group of people who punish themselves every year with this nonsense, and we know how to police ourselves by now. There were the usual bad actors and cutters, but nothing is going to stop them short of serious professional intervention.

Reeves did enforce the one item per person rule on the Radars, more or less (allegedly they were confiscating multiple Radars from people in the checkout line, but I didn’t witness that personally.) I got one on the first day, and a second on Saturday for my friend, when I realized just how nice he really was in person. There are two versions - one with subtle dapples, and the other with more dramatic ones - though I couldn’t tell you which one is the more rare of the two. I got one of each, and I’m having a hard time deciding which one to keep. I might let my friend make the decision for me.

I was a little alarmed by the feeding frenzy associated with the Radar. He’s nice, but not elbow-to-eyeball nice. Things were nowhere near as crazy for Toby last year; it makes me wonder if the news about the nature of the "Store Special" has finally sunk in with the greater collecting public (i.e. lower piece run, no ticket required.) If that’s the case, Reeves really does need to step up their game in regards to the Pit, especially if next year’s Store Special is really something.

And regarding the Strapless and LSE leftovers, That Foal, That YouTube video, and the misadventures of my Hat - well, we’ll discuss that tomorrow.

Wish You Were Here

Having an awesome time so far. Figure I'd give a quick update while the room sales are momentarily quiet. Sales have been good, but not great yet - lots of wanderers and window shoppers. Kinda figures, given the economy.

I've been good so far with my purchases - just a bunch of reference materials, including some hobby stuff from the early 1970s, including a few show ribbons. (One from 1973 listed the judge as "Marney." Just about made me cry!)

And thanks to one of these reference material stashes, I finally solved a mystery we discussed here on the blog: the origin of those mysterious cast iron Breyer doorstops. The company responsible? The Armstrong Supply Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The brochure I found in my stash is for their "Western Art Collection," featuring what they call "Genuine Legal Forgeries."

"The Armstrong "A" Series (Prefix "A") is an outstanding collection of museum quality prints which are among the world's finest. These prints are exact reproductions of original masterpieces by famous western artists such as Charles Russell and Frederick Remington.

Published by Aaron Ashley, Inc., of New York, these fine prints are copyrighted reproductions authorized by the museums owning the originals."

Interesting. From the back page:

"We invite you to write for our Armstrong Supply Catalog No. 76 which includes an extensive line of equestrian equipment and tack. Also featured in this catalog, you'll find our delightful collection of Cast Iron and Brass Giftware. These unusual and authentic Early American Antique reproductions include everything from children's toys to Farm and Ranch Bells."

Hmm. More to the story than a simple case of copying, perhaps?

Heavy Metal Horses

Ach! I am so completely unmotivated. It's my reflective time of the year; I'd rather sit and contemplate the greater mysteries of the universe, than the smaller ones of Breyer History. I'm not going to force it, because I have faith that this deeper contemplation will lead to something productive in the end. Like Douglas Adams's "holistic detective" character Dirk Gently, I believe it doesn't matter where I start, because eventually I'll end up where I need to go. From The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul:

"... A few turnings later and I was thoroughly lost. There is a school of thought which says that you should consult a map on these occasions, but to such people I merely say, 'Ha! What if you have no map to consult? What if you have a map but it's of the Dordogne?' My own strategy is to find a car, or the nearest equivalent, which looks as if it knows where it is going and follow it. I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often I end up somewhere that I needed to be. So what do you say to that?"

"Piffle."

"A robust response. I salute you."

Not a terribly useful line of thinking if you find yourself wandering around the parking lot of Target the day after Christmas, in the rain, wondering where the heck you parked the darn car, but perhaps moreso in more intellectual pursuits. Like running keyword searches on Google for cast iron doorstops.

Like this one:


It's part of an extended series of Breyer knockoff doorstops. In one of my luckier days at the flea market, I found a small collection - five pieces, to be precise. I sold most of them off for my own safety: they were extremely heavy, and I am extremely clumsy and value my feet.

I did keep the Old Timer: I have a modest interest in Breyer knockoffs, and I was a little obsessed with the Old Timer at that moment in time. He was also in the best condition of the bunch, and he still had his hat. (Cast Iron Doorstop with removeable hat = cool. 'Nuff said.)

I do know a little bit about these cast iron knockoffs For the record, there are at least eleven of them:

4510 St. Bernard
4511 Horned Hereford Bull
4512 Bassett Hound
4513 Appaloosa Foal (Lying Down Foal)
4514 Tennessee Walking Horse (Midnight Sun)
4515 Fighting Stallion (Alabaster)
4516 Arabian Stallion (Palomino FAS)
4517 Famous Thoroughbred (Traditional Man o War)
4518 Clydesdale Stallion
4519 Jumping Horse
4520 Old Timer

I know this much about them because I have multi-generational copies of two pages from a catalog that lists them by these names and numbers. It's obviously some sort of wholesale or manufacturer catalog, because the copy states: This new handsome group of animal reproductions in Cast Iron is becoming a popular and fast-moving line among our customers.


There's some truth in the statement about their popularity, because they do turn up with some frequency in antique stores, on eBay, and on antique web sites that don't know what they are talking about.

Those antique websites usually identify them as being very old. They can't be: they're all copies of models made from the 1950s onward; the St. Bernard wasn't introduced until 1972! My guess would be that they date from the mid- to late 1970s: cross-reference the manufacturing dates, and you'll find that these models were all current and available from 1972 through 1980.

Who the manufacturer is, is the mystery here. The antique web sites and references sometimes identify them as Hubley, which is impossible since Hubley stopped manufacturing in the mid-1960s. They did make a few horses, but they don't look anything like the Breyer knockoffs. It's just wishful thinking on the antiquers' part: Hubley pieces are very collectible, and often very pricey.

The only clue to the real manufacturer is a logo that appears in the upper corner of the two catalog pages: a Currier and Ives-styled horse with the letters ASC.


I've done several different keyword searches looking for this company, with no usable results. At this point I think randomly typed keyword searches would probably be just as fruitful.